OPEX in BSF production: What really drives €/kg output costs

If CAPEX determines whether a Black Soldier Fly (BSF) facility can operate with required efficiency, OPEX in BSF production determines whether it survives economically.

Most BSF business plans underestimate operating costs, sometimes because numbers are wrong, but especially often because the real cost drivers are misunderstood. This article breaks down the operational expense (OPEX) structure of BSF production and explains what actually drives cost per kilogram of output.

OPEX in BSF production is about flow stability, not just inputs

OPEX in BSF production is often reduced to a short list:
– Feedstock (the substrate, i.e. biowaste or alike)
– Energy
– Labor

In reality, OPEX is driven by variability. Any instability in feedstock, climate, throughput, or scheduling creates hidden costs that compound quickly.

A stable system with “average” inputs almost always outperforms an unstable system with theoretically cheaper inputs.

Feedstock: cost is only half the equation

Feedstock is often assumed to be the main OPEX driver — and in many cases it is — but price alone is misleading.

What actually matters:
✔ Moisture consistency (need for humidification/de-humidification –> energy costs)
✔ Particle size and homogeneity (efficiency in consuming the feedstock)
✔ Predictable availability (batch sizes, over-/under-capacity)
✔ Pre-treatment requirements (labor, energy, equipment)

Cheap feedstock that causes uneven growth, excess moisture, or frequent batch failures increases:
– Handling time
– Energy use
– Waste
– Output variability (lower output efficiency than expected)

The lowest-cost feedstock is rarely the one with the lowest €/kg larvae produced.

Energy: the second-order cost that becomes first-order

Energy costs typically come from:
– Heating
– Ventilation and air movement (related also to structural inefficiencies)
– Dehumidification
– Drying or stabilization

Two common mistakes drive energy OPEX up:

Treating climate control as a fixed cost instead of a variable one
✔ Although it may be closer to a fixed cost in smaller container-type units
✔ External weather conditions may cause major changes in energy costs in the form of more (efficient) climate control required.
✔ It may be more of a reserve energy issue or related to pre- and post-processing than actual rearing process when the unit is powered by solar panels (=CAPEX rather than OPEX).

Ignoring biological heat generation from larvae
✔ …requires cooling or generally automated climate control.
✔ Need for airflow rather than heating or even cooling.

As production density increases, larvae generate significant heat. If this is not managed properly, cooling and dehumidification costs can exceed heating costs — even in cold climates.

Energy-efficient BSF production focuses on heat and moisture balance, not just insulation.

Harvesting and processing: where OPEX quietly explodes

Harvesting and processing costs scale with:
✔ Batch frequency
✔ Material handling distance
✔ Separation efficiency
✔ Drying time per kg

If harvesting capacity is tight, operators compensate by:
– Delaying harvest
– Running partial loads
– Increasing manual handling

Each of these increases OPEX and reduces output quality. Processing inefficiency rarely shows up as a single large cost — it appears as death by a thousand small inefficiencies.

Maintenance, cleaning, and downtime

BSF facilities operate in a humid, biologically active environment. This makes cleaning, preventive maintenance and component replacement non-negotiable operating costs.

Facilities with overly complex equipment, tight access spaces or poor drainage experience higher downtime and higher long-term OPEX, even if initial CAPEX looked attractive.

Significant point of consideration is whether you run a continuous process or a batch process – how much do you lose or have downtime when something happens.

Yield consistency beats peak performance

Many OPEX models assume:
– Constant growth rates
– Fixed feed conversion
– No failed batches

Reality looks different.

A facility producing 90% of theoretical yield consistently will almost always outperform a facility hitting 110% occasionally and 70% the rest of the time.

OPEX in BSF production is minimized by:
✔ Reducing variance
✔ Standardizing routines
✔ Designing for repeatability

Not by chasing maximum biological performance.

The real €/kg equation

The true cost per kilogram of BSF output is driven by:
✔ Feedstock quality, not just price
✔ Energy per unit of stable production
✔ Throughput efficiency after rearing
✔ Downtime and batch loss frequency

This is why two facilities with similar CAPEX and feedstock access can have dramatically different unit costs.

Final thought

OPEX in BSF production is not about optimizing a single line item, it’s about keeping the entire system predictable.

Low-cost BSF production comes from:
✔ Stable inputs
✔ Balanced capacities
✔ Simple, robust processes
✔ Early detection of deviations

In the next article, we’ll look at production capacity and output metrics — how to realistically calculate kg per square meter, per container, or per facility without falling into optimistic traps.

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Read also:
CAPEX in BSF production
Optimizing BSF frass processing: Techniques, equipment and value enhancement
Building a professional level BSF farm for under $10,000
Top 10 most viable BSF business cases for 2025-2026