With investor confidence at a low ebb it is somewhat refreshing to hear Jason Drew's perspective of South Africa.The son of a British diplomat, Drew took his first trip to the country for a Christmas holiday break, whereafter he promptly sold his business in France and relocated to Cape Town in 2003.

“I could not believe what opportunity existed here and how different it was from the poor press South Africa had at that time in Europe. I returned home for a short while, but decided there and then to seek a future in your wonderful country,” he tells of the decision to the move here.

A former student of the European Business School in London and Frankfurt, he worked for engineering firm General Electric and then health insurer Bupa– a job he left to join the start-up of France's first independent Internet bank, Zebank, which he and his partners later sold.

His business in Cape Town is worlds apart from the elegant, airconditioned boardrooms of Europe.

Referring to Drew as the ‘Lord of the Flies’ is difficult to resist. He literally produces fly larvae by the truckload to provide as feedstock to chicken and fish farmers in a science offshoot called nutrient recycling.

His company, AgriProtein, which he runs with his business partner and brother, David, has just completed production trials (March 1) for a large-scale magmeal factory.

Magmeal, a trademarked concept, is the finished product of the fly farm.

What Is Nutrient Recycling?
Today people take it for granted that they should recycle paper, glass tins and plastics, and within a decade they will consider it normal to also recycle waste nutrients, believes Drew.

“AgriProtein is leading the creation ofa new industry, namely that of nutrient recycling. We take waste from slaughterhouses and feed the blood and guts to the larvae of flies. We hatch the eggs into larvae, feed the waste to the larvae and sell the larvae, in competition to other protein sources, as an animal feed for fish and chickens.”

Sounds somewhat gruesome?

Not at all, says Drew. It is simply a method copied from nature’s “tried and tested processes”.

“Fly larvae is what these animals would naturally eat. It is why trout jump out of streams and why chickens scratch in the fields – to look for flies and their larvae. The system has been tried and tested by mother nature for over 20-million years.

“In fact, any truly free-range chicken or wild fish you eat today will have fed on flies and insects, which would have fed on blood and manure, for example. It is natural – we just don't see it as such because we are too divorced from nature.”

If not gruesome, then certainly the gospel of a tree-hugging evangelist? Perhaps, but Drew, as a seasoned businessman, understands that ‘green’ is no excuse for inefficiency. His environmental agenda boasts a modest, but definite capitalist hue.

“I sold out of most of my 'industrial revolution' businesses in 2008. I then discovered the environment, explored the issues we face and sawthe business opportunities in addressing these. I have since started and invested in a number of remarkable and game-changing green businesses,” says Drew.

The entrepreneur’s other businesses are just as interesting as fly farming, but that is a topic for another day.

AgriProtein’s Ambitions
The production on an industrial scale of larvae for the agricultural feed sector is a concept first thought of in the 1930s, when food was scarce, explains Drew.

However, at that stage all research was purely academic in nature. But, as the price of fish meal has now increased from a fairly constant $600 a ton nearer to $2 000 a ton, the economic straightjacket of this farming concept has been removed. (The chemical composition of fishmeal is almost exactly the same as that of fly larvae, which is why fishmeal was a viable substitution for their natural food, says Drew.)

The most full-sized fish and shrimp which consumers are likely to find in their supermarket today come from a fish farm, most of which require “huge amounts” of marine-caught material, dried and ground up into fishmeal, for their feed, notes Drew.

In the most productive salmon farms it takes an average 2.5 kg of fishmeal to produce 1 kg of supermarket-ready salmon, he adds, which is quite ironic.

“We are better off eating the last fish in the sea than eating protein-hungry farmed fish. There are of course fish like the tilapia that have a more plant-based diet, but these also require some marine protein.

“Unless we find a new sea with new sources of fish in it, we are unlikely to see the price of fishmeal – made from fish and fed to fish – do anything but rise further,” emphasises Drew.

AgriProtein is aware of other, similar fly farming research initiatives to their own around the world. However, Drew believes the companyis ahead of its competitors as it has gone “further than research” and is already in production.

AgriProtein is actively seeking to industrialise its technology.

“This is without question a world-first.”

Drew does not plan to be tight-fisted with AgriProtein’s research.

“We hope it will be copied and that an industry will be created that will help save our seas and feed our population more naturally and sustainably.”

AgriProtein is – “at this stage” – a private company funded by its founders and a few shareholders, says Drew.

“As we are creating a new industry in a collaborative manner, we have co-opted many of the world’s best thinkers to help us – from entomologists to food scientists to animal nutritionists.

“We view this as a global business with global opportunities. We have also started work on researching a German operationas one of our founders is based there, and Germany is at the forefront of environmental thinking.

“We will, in time, open factories in other locations.”

In fact, AgriProtein already has expressions of interest from more than 30 countries.

How It Works
Establishing a large-scale fly farm is not nearly as easy as it seems, warns Drew.

AgriProtein grows larvae using three different types of flies: the common housefly (Musca domestica), the black soldier fly (Hermetia) and the blowfly (Calliphoridae family).

The flies feed on specific types of organic waste. The common housefly and the blowfly feed on abattoir waste, whereas the black soldier fly prefers materials that contain carbohydrates, such as manure and vegetable matter.

“After nearly five years of research we have completed our animal trials and our production trials and, over the course of the next months, will wrap-up the design of the full-scale factory, says Drew.

“We have successfully produced at the rate of nearly two tons a week during production trials and our fully automated plant is designed to produce 100 t of wet larvae a day, or 28 t of dried magmeal a day, or more than 10 000 tons a year.”

A fly farm consists of enormous fly cages which are geared towards the large-scale laying and collection of eggs. The eggs are removed from the cages, but with a portion retained in order to maintain a breeding stock.

The eggs taken from the cages are combined with waste nutrients (to feed on) on a conveyor belt system.

Each fly will lay up to 1 000 eggs and each kilogram of eggs will turn into 380 kg of larvae within 72 hours –depending on the species.

“We thendry these larvaeand mill them. We provide this protein in a form similar to that of fishmeal – magmeal – for inclusion in the palletising operations of feed producers,” explains Drew.

AgriProtein already sells magmeal in small quantities. However, the key is to deliver massive quantities, as required by industrial agricultural businesses.

“Scalability and designing the engineering processes are our current challenge,” says Drew.

Maintaining a fly colony all year round has also been problematic, as is ensuring an environment that maximises the growth rate of eggs intolarvae. Temperature, humidity, light and density all play a role to keep the flies happy and breeding.

“In the same way that chicken farmers produce all year round so must AgriProtein,” says Drew. “It has simply been a matter of research trial and error and, of course, a bit of luck.”

He adds that it is not all about large-scale farming, even if that is quite a significant breakthrough. AgriProtein is also producing home kits, as well as small-scale production equipment for customers, such as farmers, looking to set up their own plants.

AgriProtein’s large plant, set to employ more than 80 people, is expected to cost between $6-million and $7-million, or roughly R57-million at current exchange rates.

This new industry can produce 600 t of protein per hectare, compared with under 50 t of protein in a typical agricultural setting, notes Drew.

It also reduces the potential hazardous landfill of the waste now used to feed the flies.

Fly farming should, however, also make business sense –and it does. At current fishmeal prices, each plant with a design output of 28 t a day is set to generate turnover of more than R127.5-million a year, says Drew.

AgriProtein is already producing magmeal and believes it can be done at around $900 a ton, competing effectively with fishmeal, which trades at around $2 000 a ton.

As the price of fishmeal continues to rise, the fly business would continue to benefit.

There is market potential for 1 500 similar plants around the world to meet the current and growing need for protein to feed the animals that are feeding the world’s expanding population, says Drew. And for how long can governments afford using food sources to feed food sources?

AgriProtein’s current client base consists of smaller-scale free-range producers and producers focused on sustainable feed sources.

“As we move into large-scale production we will focus on large industrial agribusinesses that uses large quantities of feed for its monogastric animals, whether those are fish or fowl,” notes Drew.

Hatching The Idea
Drew’s Eureka moment was hardly the stuff of a soft-focus Hollywood movie. It came from standing at a dam of blood at the back of an abattoir.

“Surrounding that dam were millions of flies,” says Drew. “I realised that these waste nutrients were in fact a natural feedstock for these flies. Having as a young boy fished with a fly on the end of the line or a larvae on the end of a hook,I put two and two together and, with the enormous input of a number of collaborators here in South Africa and around the world, we are now at the point of profitably recycling waste nutrients and, at the same time, saving our seas.”

The team behind AgriProtein’s project is indeed big. The company has forensic entomologists, entomologists, animal nutritionists, feed formulators, engineers and planners on its payroll.

One example of the expertise involved is the University of Stellenbosch’s Dr Elsje Pieterse, who has spent more than a decade researching the concept of nutrient recycling.

More recently, as a member of the Department of Animal Sciences at the University Of Stellenbosch, she has been overseeing the trial use of AgriProtein’s magmeal as a feed source for chicken and fish.

“Unsurprisingly the results were superb – after all, it is what these animals have always eaten,” says Drew.

It has not been plain sailing to finally arrive on the threshold of a commercial plant, he adds.

“It has taken 70 years to industrialise the chicken farming industry from its early post-war beginnings. We are farming what we call small stock. It is in many respects just as complicated to get large volumes of flies and larvae to live and breed and feed all year round, as it is their livestock equivalent. We need the talents of all these people combined to deliver a successful commercial outcome for ourselves and a sustainable outcome for the planet.”

With a number of regulators to impress and convince of the safety and viability of its magmeal feedstock, AgriProtein has had offers of help with regulations and food approvals “from all over the world”, says Drew.

“We have also had support from government agencies, keen to see nutrient recycling becoming an industry. Globally, governments are increasingly aware of the need for food security and this is one initiative that can assist with that.”

Current planning is for AgriProtein’s production trials to have ended in March, following which the company will have the information required to complete the design of the full-scale factory.

“This design phase will take two to three months, during which time we will complete the funding for the factory’s construction,” notes Drew.

“We already have over 50% of funding committed from existing shareholders, and a number of interesting offers from a range of companies to work with us in completing that funding.

“Once we have our first full-scale factory, we will license that technology around the world.”

* Jason Drew has been so taken by the fly and its “misunderstood role” in history and nature that he has writtena book on the insect, titled The Story of The Fly and How It Could Save The World. It isa look at how people have made use of flies over the years, from Ghengis Kahn tothe US’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Fact box:
So much more than fly larvae, says University of Stellenbosch researcher

Magmeal can be mixed into animal rations and contains no toxins and has no side-effects that could be found to date, says University of Stellenbosch department of animal sciences’ Dr Elsje Pieterse.

“It is, in fact, easy to digest, while it is also a renewable source of animal feed. It’s a win-win situation.”

Apart from these benefits, a renewable nutrient recycling system such as a fly farm is also very productive, as it can produce 500 t of pure protein per hectare, which is quite a high number compared with other food sources.

But, there is more to fly farms than producing ‘mere’ animal feed, emphasises Pieterse.

Fly larvae also have a high fat content, with the ideal fatty acid mix for biodiesel production. The chitin in the larvae can also be used in the manufacturing of filters used in harvesting uranium from the sea, as well as to take heavy metals out of polluted water and produce biodegradable plastic.

Biomedically speaking, the larvae have value in the production of cholesterol medication, without the side-effects seen in current medicines. The enzymes in the larvae can also be used to heal diabetic sores.

“Fly larvae also carry antitumour, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties that are just waiting to be researched,” says Pieterse.

She says the idea of using fly larvae to manufacture animal feed first hatched with her 22 years ago, borne from a passion to prevent water contamination, but she could never manage to secure funding for such a research project.

“Then, in 2007, Jason Drew from AgriProtein offered to finance the first research project. Shortly thereafter we signed all the contracts and the research simply took off.”

She cites the biggest problem currently facing the fly-farm project as being consumer ignorance.

“Consumers are okay with the fact that hectares of rain forests are cut down to produce genetically modified soya, or that millions of litres of diesel are used to travel out to sea to catch fish to produce fishmeal to feed fish at fish farms, this while the natural food of animals are grains and insects. They cringe at the fly larvae in their garbage cans, which is simply a byproduct of a mismanaged food-system.”

Pullout quote:
‘After nearly five years of research we have completed our animal trials and our production trials and, over the course of the next months, will wrap-up the design of the full-scale factory’ – Jason Drew

Graphic: WITH CHRISTO