The Problem
The global demand for animal proteins will increase by 60% until 20306, especially for poultry.
Currently, the EU is importing 74% of its high protein feeds (e.g. soy and fish meal) that are needed for the most carbon-efficient livestock: fish and poultry. With arable land decreasing, fish stocks close to depletion and climate change putting additional strain on production7, insects are an extremely space- and climate-efficient solution for transforming existing, low value food waste into high value products8: Protein, oil and organic fertilizer.
However, it has been extremely difficult for potential insect producers to enter the market, due to high infrastructure cost, a lack of know-how and equipment, as well as a lack of a sound business case. With the right technologies and infrastructure put in place, there is a huge market opportunity in upcycling the large amounts of unsold food wasted in the EU into animal protein.
Our Solution:
As the cost of feed accounts for half the production costs of insects, we decided to go to a place where feed is abundant, essentially for free and all the necessary infrastructure already in place: Feed mills and food recycling companies. Our solution empowers these non-insect companies to use insect technology to drastically increase their current profit margin on food waste, while securing our future protein supply in an ecologically sustainable way. We are delivering a highly scalable insect farming solution. Our competitive advantage is simplicity, low risk and fast deployment of this turnkey solution.
This solution, with its underlying business opportunity, enables a rapid scale up to make a lasting impact on our food system.
Overall Objectives:
• HP Protein Factories for Insect Fattening:
Plug & play modules at an industrial scale for fattening and processing of insect larvae on-site where the food waste occurs or where there is existing infrastructure of food waste processing (bread mills and recycling centres). For this process, we utilize the species of Tenebrio molitor, commonly referred to as “mealworm”.
• HP Seedlings for Supplying the HP Protein Factories:
Baby insect larvae, grown in our HP Nursery. Together with special starter feed, they are supplied monthly to our customers for fattening.
• HP FaaS (Factory as a Service):
A full service for training, remote monitoring, process optimization, maintenance and upgrades for our customers.
