INTERVIEW 46 Alternative Proteins Magazine April 2025 At the moment, I would say the biggest market opportunity is in pet food. It's been projected that insect protein for pet food, if it secured just 5 percent of the market, would require 20,000 tons a year. That is an area where there are less restrictive legislations, and there's no issue with consumer acceptance. Consumers are very happy to feed their pets food that is good for them and it is really good for dogs and cats to have insect in their diets. The production pipeline is also a bit freer. So, the pet food sector is one where there's a lot of growth, and innovation and some intriguing companies. So, I think we're very much at a turning point. It's an exciting time and there's a lot of growth potential. Although insect farming is a relatively new field, it has been growing rapidly in recent years worldwide, especially in Europe. How do you evaluate the growth and expansion momentum of the sector in the world and in the UK? What are the factors that support and restrict this growth? I think we see a key role for the government. The countries where we've seen a lot of growth have been the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Singapore. These are countries where the government has worked closely with the industry to really put in place the conditions that stimulate and support insect farming and the use of insect protein. The Netherlands has a strong sector focus, like with Wageningen University, which is one of the world leading research centres for farmed insect protein. They were the first movers in Europe. Additionally, Switzerland has done a lot of work to establish a farming license model. And Singapore has opened the market for insect protein substantially. Europe has generally been more cautious, which has been frustrating for a number of our food related companies. Post-Brexit, the UK has become a challenging environment. We’ve worked closely with the Food Standards Agency to get a transitional arrangement for insects as food. And now we're seeing Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the UK consulting on the use of processed insect protein for pigs and poultry, as well as aquaculture. So, things are moving in the right direction. But that legislative piece is absolutely key, because insects have huge potential, if they can be fed on a variety of different feedstocks. They can be offered as feed to a variety of different types of consumers, whether it's livestock, pet food or human. At the moment, legislation is not fit for purpose as it very much constrains those aspects. The other thing that we're seeing is that, as this is a new field, a lot of the local authorities and their enforcement teams are not familiar with insect farming and they don't know what to look for. So, getting a license to operate, as well as getting the necessary certificates can make it challenging to set up an insect farm in the UK. In terms of pure volume, there's no doubt that insect bioconversion is going to be the really big player. That's because the alternatives for using food waste or organic co-products are huge. So, we have very large food supply chains where there's a lot of material that is not being used and is currently going to landfill. We're talking about millions of tons, and the British government is really clamping down on food waste going to landfill. They're putting a requirement on companies and local authorities to separate out their food
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNjkxNQ==