Manna Insect is the world’s leading producer of insect farming technology and services, with customers across the globe in over 30 countries. Manna Insect CEO and Founder Ykä Marjanen took the time to explain what the big fuzz about insect farming is all about and why should poultry farmers take it seriously.
What do you actually do?
“We help Black Soldier Fly (BSF) farmers to get started with professional-level BSF production and to scale it up to a profitable business. Most of our customers grow BSF for animal feed, especially chicken, pig and fish farmers often want to reduce their feed costs or make a side income from insect farming.”
And the technology and services you provide?
“For someone just starting BSF farming we offer free training courses, webinars, a BSF business case calculator, an insect farm management tool, and a knowledge base. It’s important that all these are available for free for someone to learn the ropes, and only pay for more advanced training or tools when the farm is already making money or savings.”
“For more advanced farmers we offer paid advanced training courses, advanced features on the farm management tool, PRO-level webinars and live Q&A sessions, and generally more content and features on our platform, the Farm Hub, which is a central place for all BSF farming related information. The Farm Hub is free at the basic level, only the advanced features cost.”
“When it comes to technology, we have created the world-leading climatization technology that enables creating an optimal climate within a BSF production unit all year round, independent of climate changes outside. It enables the production unit to get better and more predictable results, the larvae are generally much bigger than in backyard farms, much less manual work required, and it allows using greenhouses, warehouses or old sea containers to be used as production units.”
Climatization technology sounds expensive…
“It may sound expensive, but our solution is not just the most advanced, but also the cheapest! You can build much of the unit yourself and use local hardware store equipment with the help of our shopping lists and guidance, and the climatization unit itself costs from 590 USD upwards, depending on the setup.”
“It’s okay to start small scale in your backyard, and once you’ve learned the basics, you can start scaling up with perhaps an old chicken shack or nets, and then eventually you have enough experience and income that you can afford to invest in climatization.”
Where to find customers then?
“If you’re a chicken farmer yourself, you probably know other farmers who may want to use larvae as feed, and if you use Facebook or WhatsApp groups related to BSF farming or poultry farming, you can advertise your production there. But if you want to find bigger customers, more customers or your production capacity is big enough to export, we are just launching the world’s first actual BSF Marketplace now in January!”
“You can advertise your BSF products or buy BSF eggs, larvae, frass, or farming equipment in the Marketplace. It is already available now at the Farm Hub, and we’re just now adding more producers and marketing it to potential customers starting from January onwards. It’s free to use, just like many other features at the Farm Hub”
You can find the Manna Insect Farm Hub and the BSF Marketplace by creating a free account at https://farm.mannainsect.com/auth/login
