Ecuador Latin America opens first production plant that uses insect meal to reduce the cost of animal feed.
Guayaquil, Ecuador based Bioconversión has opened a USD 2.5 million (EUR 2.2 million) plant generating insect meal – the first such insect meal manufacturing plant in Latin America. Founded in 2019, the biowaste-to-protein processing company will use black solder fly (hermetic illucens) larvae to supply 1,2 h metric tons (MT) of animal feed and 5,000 MT of fertilizer a yr.
The plant will use 14,500 MT of natural resources yearly coming from agribusiness residues – which might be sent to landfills – as meals for its flies. The fly larvae feed off the waste, generating fertilizer in the process. Once mature, the larvae are harvested, dried, milled, and become animal feed.
“Investment in the economic system is the way to go, and this is why we opted for this project”, Bioconversión CEO Mauricio Laniado stated. Insect meal has a protein value of 45% and 26% fat and is visible as a sustainable alternative,
of protein including fishmeal. It is expecting that with one hectare, up to 2 million insect proteins will be produce. Comparably, 1,500 pounds of soy protein or 192 pounds of meat protein will be produce, in the following decade. the insect-meal enterprise having the capability of processing 1,460,000 MT of natural wastes per yr. changing it into 73,000 MT of insect protein meal and 505,000 MT of natural fertilizer. our industry yielding USD 146 million (EUR 129 million)of a yr income and creating as many as 2,000 new jobs.
the first to open in Zede del Litoral, a unique development sector destined for local innovation and operated via Superior Polytechnic School (Espol, according to its acronym in Spanish)
