INTERVIEW 32 Alternative Proteins Magazine April 2024 Alex Diana, Product Manager at Innovafeed: “Downstream, our main clients are leaders in the animal nutrition sector such as Cargill and ADM. We position ourselves as suppliers of high-quality and sustainable ingredients that are complementary to existing traditional ingredients. Securing long-term contracts with such tier 1 players was key for us to finance our growth. Our ambition is to create a whole new industry and we aim to deliver largescale impact.” Founded in 2016, France-based agtech company, Innovafeed, has quickly become one of the biggest companies in the insect industry. Thanks to its collaborations with major global companies in the food value chain and the funding it has received, the company, which first commissioned its industrial-scale production facility in Nesle, France, and recently in Decatur, USA, is strengthening its presence as one of the leading suppliers of insect-based ingredients to the animal nutrition industry. We asked Alex Diana, Product Manager, about all these remarkable growth and developments at Innovafeed. Mr. Diana details everything that our readers are curious about: As Innovafeed, you made rapid progress despite having been established in 2016. Can you tell us the key to your success? From the creation of the company in 2016, Innovafeed has followed three rules that were key to its success: • Give a solution to future scarcity of proteins: Insects, as a sustainable, high-quality source of proteins, are a valid alternative to traditional ingredients for animal nutrition. • Build an ecosystem of public and private partners to accelerate the growth of the company: Eg., strong relationships enabled us to quickly identify a production site for our first farm in France back in 2017 • Prove quickly that insects can be farmed at an industrial scale: To achieve this, we put a lot of effort into demonstrating our ability to deliver in record time a pilot-scale production site in Gouzeaucourt, France. From there and with our first concrete volumes of insect-based ingredients, we were able to convince our partners Cargill to secure a first long term commitment and Tereos to deploy our first industrial-scale site in Nesle which started to operate in 2020. INNOVAFEED CREATES A NEW ASPECT TO THE INSECT INDUSTRY WITH ITS INVESTMENTS
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