AgriTech | Insects as feed

AgriTech Insects as feed

With rising income levels and a multiplying global population, the demand for meat and seafood is likely to increase with 70 percent to 2bn tonnes by 2050 from 1.2bn tonnes currently. The increase in demand, also requires more feed ingredients that are high in protein, such as soybean meal and fish meal but both face sustainability questions that limit their potential for growth. In the search for alternatives, insect meal is the forerunner, given its high quality protein profile.
• Insects as feed could play a crucial role in supporting conventional meat productivity improvements. Insect meal has the same high quality claims and are providing similar functionalities as fish meal – improving animal health and production efficiency. As such insects are considered an exceptional source of protein for pets, farmed and aquacultured animals.

• In order for insect proteins to reach their full potential, legislation is required to include all waste as insect feed. Using waste to rear insects is particularly interesting because it plays into the idea of a “circular food production system” — one in which waste products can be reinvested into the system so that more food and less waste is produced.

• This could also tilt both the environmental and cost balance to the benefit of the insect meal industry. In our base case we expect the industry to measure 1 million tonnes (USD2.5bn) by 2030 and geometric expand to 7.3m tonnes (USD13.1bn) by 2045. Current total fish meal and oil production is about 6m tonnes.