25 t of black soldier fly larvae per day from vegetable by-products

Weda Dammann & Westerkamp, the German feeding technology specialist, has supplied a liquid feeding system for the black soldier fly (BSF) to Portuguese breeder Ento Green. Established in 2014 by Daniel Murta, Ento Green is based in Santarém. It produces high-grade animal protein for products including pet food as well as organic fertiliser from by-products of the agricultural and food industry that cannot be used as a source of nutrition and would otherwise go to waste.

In the system, the BSF larvae are fed on the by-products until they attain their final weight. Including control and visualisation systems, the Weda plant is a container unit with mixing tanks that were specially developed and constructed for Ento Green.

The feed substrate can be mixed in parallel in the liquid feeding plant, with its individual composition and precise portioning to the rearing units being controlled by the integrated Intrix dosing system. In a large number of test runs, even viscous substrates could be metered and conveyed without any problems.

“The Weda plant produces sufficient vegetable substrates to achieve a daily larvae output of around 25 tons from regional vegetable by-products. Its modular design means that it can easily be expanded to scale up production,” explains Gabriel Schmidt, the export manager responsible at Weda. A new plant is already being planned that will produce up to 45 tons of live larvae with a daily raw material input of 210 tons from 2025, according to Schmidt.