Fly breeding or the unbelievable secret market of 5,000 million euros

For more than 10 years they have been working on the development of scientific and technical processes related to the artificial breeding of Diptera (flies) and decided to use this technology to provide solutions to the demand for alternative proteins in animal feed and for effective pollinators, in a way that the research they conducted in applied entomology offered a return to society, explained one of the promoters of bioflytechBiotech born from the research group ‘Bionics, Systematics and Applied Insect Research’ of the University of Alicante, directed by Red SaintsCEO of the company.

The largest industrial insect production facility

Bioflytech’s goal for a number of years has been to increase its production. To achieve this, the technology company based in the Science Park of the University of Alicante (UA) had to resort to external funding. Financial support got out of hand in the past year Moira capital. According to the investors’ website, “Moira Capital has held an interest in BioFlyTech since September 2018. His association with the renowned Spanish entomologist Professor Santos Rojo obliges an investment of 16 million euros in this company specializing in the controlled artificial breeding of insects for conversion into high-quality proteins and fats. The aim is to become one of the largest European companies in the industrial production of insects. This is the biggest bet made in this burgeoning sector in Spain”.

Moira Capital is contributing EUR 6 million to BioFlyTech in a first phase to “build and commission the largest plant in Spain for the industrial production of insects, which is expected to produce almost a thousand tons of insect protein per year. In addition, the plant will have a processing capacity of around 9,000 tons of vegetable waste.

After this first phase, the holding company will carry out a second capital increase of 10 million euros, with which Moira will reach 80% of BioFlyTech’s capital in 2019, with the aim of investing in the construction of new industrial plants and larvae rearing facilities. “With this, more than 20,000 or 5,000 tons of high-quality animal protein or fat can be produced within 6 years. Its main objective will be use in aquaculture, which will thus have a new ingredient highly valued for its traceability, homogeneity and high protein content. Today, the aquaculture market accounts for more than 50% of the fish consumed worldwide, and the fishmeal in their diet is a limiting factor due to its increasing scarcity, volatility, declining quality and cost. In this way, BioFlyTech expects a turnover of around 40 million euros in 2024.”

When they started the company, they had a very broad business plan that covered different lines of business. But over time they gradually outlined their activity to focus on two basic lines: animal feed and pollination, without abandoning the development and optimization of breeding technology.

In the pet food sector, customers are pet food manufacturers, mainly insectivorous birds, and private breeders. In the long term they will also reach manufacturers of feed for aquaculture and animal husbandry in general. And in the agricultural sector, their customers are seed companies. As one of the team members noted some time ago: “In animal feeding, Diptera or flies are a very nutritious and healthy food source, high in protein, vitamins, fiber and minerals. Both larvae and adults are the natural food of many insectivorous animals such as birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The animal feed sector is constantly growing and needs alternative proteins to the current ones as soon as possible. If you extrapolate the size of the market for fishmeal, currently the most important source of protein, to insectmeal, around 4 million tons of insectmeal are likely to be consumed. In this way, insect meal would have a market potential of 5,000 million euros worldwide.”

Regarding the agricultural production market, some fly species act as important pollinators, both of wild and cultivated plants. In fact, they are credited with being more efficient as pollinators than Hymenoptera on many occasions, for example in the cultivation of oilseed rape, Apiaceae, Rosaceae, Solanaceae and many Asteraceae and Brassica. In greenhouse cultivation, they are mainly used for vegetables such as cruciferous (cauliflower, cabbage, canola), cruciferous (lettuce, endive, endive, radicchio), umbelliferous (carrot, celery), Solanaceae (tomato, eggplant), Liliaceae (onion, leek, asparagus), they explained. In recent years we have found that due to the lower yield of these species and their low degree of specialization in a particular crop, alternative species to traditional pollinators (bees and bumblebees) need to be sought. The total economic value of insect pollination worldwide is estimated at €153 billion, equivalent to 9.5% of agricultural production.