According to AllAboutFeed, for a more sustainable protein production, Tyson Foods, one of the world's largest food companies, has agreed to a multi-year strategic collaboration with the leader in insect ingredients, Protix.

High-quality Proteins

The strategic partnership promotes efforts to create high-quality, more sustainable proteins using innovative technologies and solutions. Tyson Foods' global scale, experience, and network will complement Protix's technology and market leadership to meet the current market demand for insect proteins by increasing production.

Protix is a company that produces insect-based ingredients for healthy and sustainable food for pets, aquaculture, animal feed, and organic fertilizers. With farming, growing, and processing under one roof, the company has complete control over the production chain.

The company's mission is to create low-footprint ingredients that address major issues in the current food system. Protix contributes to a circular food chain by using waste from the food industry as food for the black soldier fly.

On the other hand, Tyson Foods is one of the world's largest food companies and a recognized leader in protein production. The company has a wide portfolio of products and brands. The giant continuously innovates to make proteins more sustainable and accessible to meet the needs of customers worldwide.

What does the agreement contain?

The partnership agreement consists of 2 main components:

Establishing a balanced joint venture to build an insect ingredient factory in the USA

A capital investment in Protix's parent entity, which will be used, among other things, to further expand globally.

Asked how much Tyson Foods invested in this collaboration, Kees Aarts, CEO of Protix, stated that the current collaboration will result in a capital investment of 55 million euros from Tyson Foods and current shareholders.

He further emphasized that the new facility's capacity will be 3 to 4 times larger than the current capacity of the Dutch facility. "The facility is expected to produce up to 70,000 tons of live larvae annually," he said.

The insect facility in the USA will host a closed system to support all aspects of insect protein production, including breeding, incubation, and insect larvae hatching. The facility will recycle food manufacturing by-products, including those from Tyson Foods, into high-quality insect proteins and lipids, primarily for use in the pet food, aquaculture, and animal industries.

Expected Collaboration Benefits

For Protix, this partnership is the next big step in international expansion. "We aim to establish 13 factories by 2035, producing approximately 950,000 metric tons of products and generating revenues of around 1 billion euros, thus making a significant impact globally," said the CEO.

"What we do is for creating a better food system. Our collaboration with Tyson Foods is a major partnership and investment that will act as a steering wheel to develop our business internationally," he added.

"The strategic investment will support the growth of the emerging insect ingredient industry and expand the use of insect ingredient solutions to create more efficient sustainable proteins and lipids for use in global food and feed systems."

Insect ingredients have immense potential as protein sources, as reports show that the demand for protein is growing, with demand expected to increase by 70% by 2050. On the other hand, the insect protein market is estimated to be worth up to $21 billion by 2042-2052.

On the same note, a 2021 report from Rabobank mentioned that "the demand for insect proteins, mainly as feed for animals and ingredients for pet food, could reach half a million metric tons by 2030, up from the current market of about 10,000 metric tons."

International Growth Strategy

The company already exports to 4 continents (Europe, North America, South America, and Africa) and intends to further expand into these regions and beyond.

"We have a proven track record of building commercial markets, often together with our customers. This is something we are very proud of, our 'collaborative approach.' We focus on growing with our inspired customers, enabling them to excite their customers with healthy and sustainable solutions," said Kees Aarts, CEO of Protix.

Looking back, this is true, Protix is a collaboration giant; as the collaboration list continues to grow, Protix has partnered with several companies, including Agrifirm, Hendrix Genetics, Buhler, and others in the value chain collaboration, for example, one where Klaas Puul B.V. teams up with Skretting Ecuador and Veramaris, (more information here), as well as in the poultry value chain with partners ForFarmers, PHW Group, Dutch entity Esbro, Venik, and Wageningen Livestock Research, (more information here).

Could insect-based ingredients fully replace common protein sources?

To answer this question, Protix believes that greater awareness of insect ingredients as sustainable nutritional solutions is needed.

Additionally, the company believes that unlocking remaining EU regulatory barriers such as obtaining approval for new feed substrates for farmed insects will further help develop the sector to extract the full potential of insects as a circular low-footprint nutrition source. Protix is active in research to indicate, for example, the benefits of all insect food ingredients.

"We need to find answers to questions about the impact these new compounds have when included in aquatic feed, pet food, or animal feed.

In short, with more awareness, larger-scale production, legislative improvements, and more research, insect ingredients will have their rightful place in replacing common protein sources." (Photo: Freepik)