“Our goal is to empower our customers to start and scale their operations independently, but we’ll always be there to offer support and guidance, even after they no longer need us for day-to-day operations.”
Insect farming is emerging as a sustainable solution to the global feed crisis, offering an eco-friendly alternative to traditional protein sources. By converting organic waste into valuable nutrients, insect farming not only reduces waste but also lowers the carbon footprint associated with feed production. Manna Insect, a pioneering company in this field, is making strides in transforming waste into high-quality protein feed using black soldier flies. We spoke with Ykä Marjanen, CEO of Manna Insect, to learn more about his journey and the company’s innovative approach.
Manna Insect distinguishes itself from typical insect farms through its unique business model and the development of the Farm Hub. Rather than solely focusing on the production of insect larvae, Manna Insect provides the technology, training, and support needed for aspiring insect farmers to establish and scale their own operations. The Farm Hub offers a comprehensive platform that guides individuals through every stage of insect farming, from initial learning and virtual simulations to hands-on climate-controlled breeding and rearing. This approach empowers local communities to create sustainable farming ecosystems, addressing feed challenges and promoting environmental sustainability on a global scale.
‘Our goal is to empower our customers to start and scale their operations independently, but we’ll always be there to offer support and guidance, even after they no longer need us for day-to-day operations,’ says Marjanen. He explains that the Farm Hub allows potential farmers to interactively learn and run virtual farms, ensuring they are well-prepared before moving on to real-life production. This structured, step-by-step guidance helps farmers optimize their processes and achieve success in the growing field of insect farming.
Looking ahead, Manna Insect is poised to expand its global footprint with new projects. By revolutionizing insect farming and empowering individuals worldwide, Manna Insect is leading the way towards a more sustainable future for animal nutrition and environmental conservation.
Below are the questions I asked and the insightful responses I received from Ykä Marjanen, shedding light on Manna Insect’s journey, innovative strategies, and the future of insect farming:
Can you tell us about your background and what motivated you to get involved in the insect farming industry?
My name is Ykä Marjanen, and I have an engineering background. I’m from Finland, and this is my fourth company, having previously worked with hardware companies in various fields. The reason I’m now involved with insects is linked to my previous venture, which I co-founded. It was in the agriculture sector where we developed protein meters. These devices measure protein, not just moisture, in the field. They can also measure carbohydrates and oil in plants, which is very beneficial. We sold these meters directly to farmers and had a successful partnership with a reseller in Turkey.
During that time, I frequently talked to animal growers who were highly motivated to understand the protein content of their animal feed. They faced significant challenges because feed costs are high and the market is global, volatile, and constantly changing. Feed costs made up about 70% or more of their total expenses, making it difficult for animal growers to control. When I was introduced to insects and the black soldier fly (BSF), I realized the potential of mass-producing this insect to solve the feed problem. Initially, I was skeptical because other insects like crickets didn’t seem viable on a mass scale. However, I was convinced that black soldier flies could be mass-produced and convert waste streams into high-quality feed. This realization led my co-founders and me to develop a biotechnology that could address the feed problem on a large scale, utilizing waste streams that are abundant in many places.
What was your approach during the development phase, and what challenges did you encounter while trying to understand and overcome the technical aspects of insect farming?
We spent three years farming insects ourselves to understand why we couldn’t make money and what the underlying problems were. It became clear that we couldn’t just buy the necessary equipment from the store and start farming successfully. We used these insights to begin developing the tools and technologies needed for successful insect farming. During this period, we focused on identifying the technical challenges and what was needed to overcome them.
We never planned to start selling the larvae ourselves on a larger scale because that would require expertise in nutrient values, amino acid profiles, and other specifics that we, as engineers, didn’t possess. Instead, we focused on sending pilot batches and understanding the market by talking to pet food companies, feed companies, and animal growers to learn about their expectations regarding price and value. However, we never fully launched a sales business.
The primary challenges have been technical or other issues that have so far prevented this solution from being widely adopted. For instance, we couldn’t make money because we couldn’t buy the necessary equipment off the shelf and start farming successfully. Therefore, we had to develop the necessary tools and technologies ourselves, based on our findings and experiences during this initial phase.
EMPOWERING ASPIRING INSECT FARMERS
How did your business model evolve from selling larvae to providing technology, training, and support?
We decided to focus on the technology rather than production because it’s challenging to do both simultaneously. Our expertise lies more in technology, product deployment, and software development. We were somewhat uncomfortable when people asked about amino acid profiles of the larvae and post-processing methods.
We shifted our focus from selling larvae to developing and providing the necessary technology and support for others to start their own insect farming businesses. We offer hardware for climate control and a significant part of what we do is training and mentoring. We guide our customers step by step through the process of setting up production and finding customers.
Our goal is to empower our customers to start and scale their operations independently, but we’ll always be there to offer support and guidance, even after they no longer need us for day-to-day operations. This approach allows us to leverage our expertise in technology and product development to help others successfully enter and scale in the insect farming industry.
CHALLENGES IN THE MARKET AND DECENTRALIZED APPROACH
What challenges have you faced in the market, particularly in competing with traditional feed sources and advocating for a decentralized farming approach?
The main challenge lies in competing with traditional feed ingredients like soy meal in terms of both price and functionality. Soy meal benefits from high subsidy levels and a well-established infrastructure supported by lobbying organizations and agricultural feed companies. Convincing animal growers to adopt alternative protein sources requires demonstrating clear benefits, primarily in terms of price and functionality.
Additionally, the market for insect protein is still developing, and many regions lack sufficient references and examples to guide growers. There’s a lack of pressure and motivation to adopt alternative protein sources uniformly across all regions. For instance, while some regions, like Africa, may have enough references and community support for insect protein adoption, this isn’t the case in most countries around the world.
Our approach involves advocating for a decentralized and modular farming model, empowering local communities to create sustainable insect farming ecosystems. This model allows for minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency, which we believe is the only way to compete with soy meal. However, it requires a fundamental shift in thinking within the insect industry, as many are still pursuing the vertical factory model. Our focus is on enabling local ecosystems to flourish, which we see as the key to successfully competing with traditional feed sources.
VISION FOR SCALABILITY AND CULTURAL ADOPTION
What is your long-term vision for Manna Insect, and how do you plan to achieve scalability and wider adoption of insect farming?
Our long-term vision is to build a sustainable business that can address long-standing challenges in the animal feed industry and provide accessible solutions for farmers worldwide. We recognize the underlying need to address feed costs in industries like animal husbandry, and we’re dedicated to providing viable alternatives.
Our strategy involves focusing on the learning and scaling phases. We’re currently working with customers who are at the scaling stage, and as they grow, new challenges arise, such as training new personnel. Our aim is to validate, optimize, and automate this phase to ensure smoother scaling for our partners.
We plan to expand our reach by having around 100 national level partners, which will significantly increase our impact. Our priority is to ensure that every customer case progresses efficiently and that they quickly transition into production. We are committed to the long term, understanding that widespread adoption of insect feed will take time, but we believe that addressing the functionality and cost-effectiveness of our products will drive this transition.
Our focus is not just on immediate revenue generation but on building a robust ecosystem of partners and customers who are empowered to scale their operations independently. This approach will help us achieve scalability and wider adoption of insect farming as a sustainable solution for the global feed industry.
INTRODUCTION TO MANNA INSECT’S FARM HUB
Can you tell us about Manna Insect’s new application and farm platform, and how it supports aspiring insect farmers?
When we began Manna Insect, our mission was clear: to solve the barriers preventing anyone from starting a profitable insect farm business at any scale. We didn’t limit ourselves to a specific technical solution; instead, we focused on identifying and addressing the real problems that needed solutions, whether that meant providing knowledge transfer or developing new technologies.
What we discovered is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. There’s no “silver bullet” that magically turns someone into a successful insect farmer. It’s a journey of learning, understanding opportunities, practicing, and iterating. Eventually, you need support to create climate-controlled environments and scale up your operations. This realization led us to create the Farm Hub, a structured platform designed to guide individuals through this journey.
The Farm Hub starts with learning. If you’re someone who wants to become an insect farmer but doesn’t know where to start, the Farm Hub provides structured, interactive content to help you proceed. It offers lectures on BSF basics, business fundamentals, and challenges, giving you the foundational knowledge you need.
Then, it allows you to interactively learn and run a virtual farm, inputting your results and receiving AI-generated analyses to understand what went wrong or right. This hands-on approach helps you practice until you’re ready to start making money.
The next steps involve getting the technology to create climate-controlled spaces for breeding and rearing, and then expanding production capacity. We’ve observed that practically every one of our customers goes through this journey, and the Farm Hub combines everything into a structured process, eliminating the need to scour YouTube or Google for information.
This structured approach is a game-changer in the agricultural industry. Unlike other sectors, such as poultry farming, where resources and guidance are more readily available, insect farming lacks a centralized learning platform. The Farm Hub fills this gap, providing a one-stop destination for aspiring insect farmers to learn, practice, and ultimately succeed in their endeavors.
EXPANSION AND SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL CUSTOMERS
How do you plan to increase your customer base in different countries and support them in starting their own insect farming businesses?
Our business target is primarily focused on the learning and scaling phases. We’re currently working with some initial customers who are at the scaling stage, and as they grow, new challenges arise. For instance, training becomes a significant aspect, especially as new personnel join the operation. Our aim is to validate, optimize, and automate this phase to ensure smoother scaling for our partners.
Our focus isn’t solely on immediate revenue generation but rather on optimizing the learning process and supporting our partners to reach hundreds of thousands of potential insect farmers. We aim to have around 100 partners, which will significantly expand our reach. Our priority is to ensure that every customer case progresses efficiently and that they quickly transition into production.
Ykä Marjanen
We offer turnkey solutions, including hardware, training, and outsourced equipment, to provide a ready-to-use farm for production. For example, our team travels to different countries to help build climate modules and provide training on how to operate them. We’ve been to over 20 countries, assisting in building the first climate modules and providing training on local equipment usage. Our goal is to empower our customers to scale their operations independently, but we’ll always be there to offer support and guidance, even after they no longer need us for day-to-day operations.
While it’s difficult to predict the exact timeline for widespread adoption of insect feed, we’re committed to the long term. We recognize the underlying need to address feed costs in industries like animal husbandry, and we’re dedicated to providing viable alternatives. However, challenges such as availability still persist, even if there’s a growing interest in insect-based feed solutions.
In essence, our focus is on building a sustainable business that can address long-standing challenges in the animal feed industry and provide accessible solutions for farmers worldwide.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR INNOVATION AND PIONEERISM
To conclude, what final message would you like to convey to our readers?
I encourage everyone to keep an eye on insect farming and, if possible, to test it on a small scale. For those interested in being pioneers in this field, now is the opportunity to explore piloting it, especially in Turkey because the market isn’t saturated yet. Being a pioneer offers a chance to get ahead and become a significant player in the market.