Available in 2019

TABLE 3.7 Details of Large-Scale Insect Farming Companies, Based on Information Available in 2019

Company name Insect species Protein meal production output (tons/ year)

Agriproteina black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)

Scaled-up capacity target (tons/year) Oil production (tons/ year) Frass production (tons/year) Facility location Employees Facility size (square meters)

1,204.50 6,205 3,500 16,500 Cape town, south Africa scaled-up locations opening around the world 160 8,500 42 13-15 missing data

ynsectb mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) “several hundred” 20,000 (at new facility in 2021) missing data missing data burgundy, France new facility being built in northern France 105 missing data missing data missing data yes

C.i.e.F.c black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) enterrad black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) 1,095 missing data missing data missing data Jeonbuk province, republic of korea 50 missing data 30 missing data yes

2,555 missing data 2,555 2.920 langley, Canada 32 5,600 (in 2020) 17,000 (future) 30 (future facility) missing data yes

Source: Original table for this publication. a. Food Business Africa 2019. b. Ynsect 2019. c. Personal communication with the company, 2019. d. Joly and Nikiema 2019.

Cost to build (US$, millions) Annual revenue (US$, millions) Vertically stacked system?

of the products to the various points of sale in the country. FasoPro’s products are sold in 24 towns at 360 points of sale to thousands of customers. FasoPro pays close attention to the quality of its products, starting from the collection of the raw material, during which specialists supervise and monitor the quality of the caterpillars collected. The collectors are trained, and the raw material is carefully selected to develop the best possible products. The enterprise carries out its processing and production according to good hygiene practices of the food industry. Before packaging and distribution, the products are subject to controls by the National Public Health Laboratory.

Aspire Ghana commercially farms palm weevil larvae and runs a program that empowers peri-rural farmers to raise palm weevil larvae locally. The company employs 60 people and produces 1 ton of palm weevils per month. The containers are stacked. The company focuses on both research and technology development of the farming system as well as commercialization of the larvae.

InsectiPro is an 8,500 square meter BSF farm in Kenya that was producing 3 tons of larvae (wet weight) per day and aimed to increase to 12 tons by the end of 2020. The company employs 46 people and spends US$15,000 per month on labor. Four of the staff members were trained at the International Center for Insect Pathology and Ecology, and two have a degree in animal sciences. InsectiPro also employs an industrial engineer, a food innovation specialist, a human resources officer, a business development consultant, and a BSF specialist. During interviews with the research team, the company’s chief executive officer said that she started with very minimal knowledge about how to raise BSF, but she found that most skills can be learned and the trial-anderror method has worked best to innovate and sustain growth. The company plans to sell 80 percent of its product to feed millers and 20 percent directly to farmers. InsectiPro is also developing an outgrower model for smallholder farmers to grow their own BSF and for middle-grower farmers to bring their BSF to InsectiPro to be dried. The project will include 10 local feed millers and approximately 250 farmers to test BSFL in InsectiPro’s facilities. InsectiPro initially invested less than US$5,000. To move production up to 1 ton per day, the company invested approximately US$50,000 and then another US$150,000 to take production to its 2020 levels (3 tons per day).

Biobuu Limited currently has factories in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Mombasa, Kenya, and is developing additional factories in Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia. In 2019 interviews, the company said that each factory will employ 20 people directly, taking in 20 tons of waste per day and supplying feed and organic compost to more than 2,000 small- and medium-scale farmers. Biobuu’s factory can produce between 1 and 2 tons of insect-derived protein and 5 tons of organic compost per day. The company sells the insect-derived protein as a replacement for soy or fishmeal to local chicken and fish farmers and the compost to local crop farmers. Biobuu says that 1 ton per day is the minimum production needed to provide a decent return on investment. Some of the highest costs are associated with collecting, accessing, and sorting the right type of waste. However, according to the company, municipal governments are often keen to offer land to treat nearby waste.