Three routes to a BSF business

01 · The wrong question

Which business, not which country

I get asked it constantly. The answer depends far less on the country than on which business you're building — and there isn't one BSF business. There are three common routes, and they win for different reasons.

I keep coming back to three real cases: one EU project in late-stage planning, one operating business in South Asia, and one operating chain in Southern Africa. All three can work. None works the same way.

02 · Three routes

Three routes, three different wins

The EU case doesn't win by selling expensive protein. Regulation caps the normal larvae-as-feed channel, so the protein price is limited. It works when the project behaves like a waste utility: a gate fee is available, feedstock risk is removed, the capital and site are covered, and the running cost makes sense. A good business — but not a feed plant.

The South Asian case is closer to what people picture as "BSF in developing markets." Free biowaste next to the plant. Low construction and labour cost. Permissive rules. Larvae sold into local poultry or aquaculture at soy parity. No gate-fee cushion, so the outputs carry the economics.

The Southern African case is different again. The legislation and cost base are favourable, but the infrastructure isn't there. Waste is scattered, suppliers and buyers aren't organised, and the operator builds more of the chain. What makes it work is the spread: high local feed prices against a developing-country cost base.

03 · The pattern

Same insect, different business

Same insect. Same biological process. Three different businesses.

04 · The numbers

What the numbers show

The numbers show why it matters. CAPEX per tonne-per-day moves about 3× across these cases, mostly because the building changes. Total OPEX can sit in a similar band, but local costs and operating choices reshape the stack. Larvae prices follow regulation. Frass is steadier, but only at the bulk floor.

05 · The real question

Which route are you running?

So the useful question isn't "does BSF work here?" It is: which route is this case trying to run?

A waste utility, paid a gate fee to take the problem away?
Low-cost feed production with an open larvae channel?
High-margin local protein, where the operator builds the value chain themselves?

If you can't name which one you're building, you don't have a business plan yet. You have a biology plan with revenue assumptions attached.

06 · The hard part

Matching the route to the place

The hard part is matching the route to the place: feedstock, capital, running cost, buyers, legislation and logistics. A case that's strong on one route falls apart if you try to run it on another. The industry should be far more open about that.

Which of the three are you running — and which one keeps getting pitched to you as if it were the only one?

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