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 Work on the world's largest fly farm has begun in South Africa after
the European firm behind the project won much-needed funding from
investors, propelling the use of insects as livestock feed beyond
academic theory to a commercial venture.
The project near Cape Town was conceived by a group of scientists
and environmentalists racing to find protein alternatives as rising
production of livestock feed such as soy gobbles up more and more
valuable agricultural land.
The farm, being built by Gibratar-based AgriProtein, will house 8.5
billion of flies that will produce tons of protein-rich larvae as
they feed on organic waste. The tallest barrier to such startups has
been the availability of capital, with potential investors deterred
by legislative hurdles.
But given the prospect of getting hundreds of times more protein
feedstock from a single hectare of land compared to traditional
sources, political objections are starting to come down. The success
of AgriProtein in securing $11 million in funds, while small, is a
sign investors are warming to the idea that insects could be big
business in the years ahead.
"The world has an issue with waste management and also sourcing
protein," said Johnny Kahlbetzer, director of Australian
agricultural company Twynam, one of several global investors in the
fly farm.
"If farming insects can solve the two problems, then that is a great
outcome, and that is what has motivated our investment," he said.
With human consumption of meat tipped to soar, and the increasing
impact that livestock production is having on the environment,
governments are now considering the use of processed insects as
animal feed.
The European Commission is relaxing rules to allow the inclusion of
insects in poultry and pig feed from 2015, while the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration is considering an application from U.S. company
EnviroFlight to sell livestock feed made from insects.
Livestock production, which accounts for 70 percent of all
agricultural land, is seen by the United Nations as a leading cause
of environmental problems including global warming, land
degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.
Referring to forecasts from the UN that food production will need to
rise 70 percent by 2050, Professor Arnold van Huis, tropical
entomologist at Wageningen University, said, "It is clear to
everybody that we need urgently protein alternatives that are less
demanding."
HOUSE OF FLIES
Housing billions of flies that feed on more than 110 tonnes of
rotting food and waste everyday, the South Africa farm will be
capable of producing 20 tonnes of larvae a day, 3.5 tonnes of larvae
high in fatty acids, and 50 tonnes of organic fertilisers, Jason
Drew, co-founder of AgriProtein, told Reuters last week.
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AgriProtein will use a combination of the black soldier fly, the
blowfly and the common housefly. In cages, the flies will be fed a
mix of spoiled or leftover food, manure, and abattoir waste. They
will then be left to breed. Their larvae will afterwards be dried
and processed into an animal feed.
When sold, Drew said, the AgriProtein feed is likely to be 15
percent cheaper than fishmeal.
Fishmeal is being sold at $1,658 a tonne at the end of May, the
World Bank said, just shy of the all-time high of $1,919 a tonne hit
in January this year.
While having a price advantage on fishmeal, PROteINSECT, the EU-funded
project investigating the efficacy and safety in using insect
protein as a source of animal feed, says insect feed will likely
never fully substitute for traditional protein sources. They will
rather alleviate environmental pressures, as demonstrated by trials
last year.
Based on UK trials, Elaine Fitches of the U.K. government-run Food &
Environment Research Agency said it would be possible to get on
average 150 tonnes of protein from a hectare of land per year,
significantly above 0.9 tonne of soy per hectare.
AgriProtein plans to grow beyond the first site, with work on a
second farm set to begin next year in South Africa and a further 38
projects planned around the world, Drew told Reuters.
AgriProtein is not without competition in North America and Europe.
EnviroFlight and Canada's Enterra Feed Corp all plan on expansion in
North America, while Ynsect and Protix Biosystems have also
committed to commercial fly production over the next year in the EU.
(Editing by Ryan Woo)
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