From 2015 to 2018 I was director of farming for a company called Multibox. Multibox was an insect farming company based in the South West, technology built at our research facility is still used in insect farming today. The South West is a great place to start an Agritech business with a high density of farmers able to give you advice, fantastic centres of excellence like the Royal Agricultural University and great connectivity with corridors like the M5.
What is insect farming?
I spoke at the British Free Range Egg Producers conference about insect farming, in that speech I talk about how processed animal protein (PAP) was banned as livestock feed in the wake of the BSE crisis, but in 2017, the EU voted to reintroduce different forms of PAP into fish food and pet food. As of next year, insect feed will be allowed to be fed to poultry.
I think there is little prospect of UK consumers ever actually eating insects on any scale. I can never see a chicken nugget becoming an insect nugget but farming insects for livestock feed did present a big opportunity.
What are the challenges?
Three main areas need more development until insect farming can be a practical option, diet & husbandry, scalable automated mass rearing systems, and downstream processing.
The main species being farmed at the moment is black soldier fly, which has a 21-day incubation period from egg to fly and produces a 2% weekly harvest. The optimum harvest day was day 18, which produced the maximum fat and protein content, and was not yet in chrysalis form.
The first challenge to make it commercially viable is getting the right feedstock for the insects. Industrial food waste (not household) was a good option but finding feedstock available all year round was quite a challenge. Cow manure would be excellent source of feed for insects, but it is not allowed by EU or UK governments.
There are currently 50 companies around the world at the moment farming insects; 27 are in Europe. The most common feedstock is fruit & veg derived products, but around 30% developed their own feed for insects from feed mills.
The main problem at the moment is no-one is at scale. Significant amounts of money have been raised. In the past year, the insect farming sector has raised $480 million in past year and has produced 6,000 tonnes, which equates to $80,000 investment per tonne manufactured.
There are other challenges too – such as how to deal with the vast quantity of frass (insect excrement) and NVQs. Cost of capital, labour, input material, and 130ppm ammonia are all other areas that need more consideration.
What now?
3 years on from my speech at the British Free Range Egg Producers conference the industry still hasn't reached critical mass. I left Multibox to become the first employee of Breedr, where I now lead the UK business which employs 24 people. Helping farmers across the UK be more productive and profitable.
