Insect breeding offers several benefits over meat production. The animals require hardly any space, are undemanding to rear and reproduce particularly quickly. In addition, the do not need much in the way of water and produce zero CO2 emissions, unlike cattle, for example. Europe is now also seeing ever more insects on supermarket shelves. However, the costs involved in breeding insects must be reduced yet further for these kind of food products to prevail, an article by startupticker.ch states.
The start-up SmartBreed from Zufikon in the canton of Aargau has set itself the target of simplifying insect breeding. It is developing stackable, fully automated breeding boxes. These are designed to minimize the time a person needs to spend on breeding insects. The boxes offer continuous self-cleaning and feed control functions.
For its breeding boxes, SmartBreed is focusing of mealworms, grasshoppers and locusts. The start-up is developing two types of breeding boxes for these insects. One type is designed for private individuals, the other for companies.
According to the startupticker.ch article, SmartBreed has now launched the first breeding boxes for mealworms on the market. The breeding boxes for grasshoppers are currently being tested in collaboration with zoos. In a next step, the company is expected to register a patent before also making these available on the market, as Christoph Bertschi, Co-Founder and CEO of SmartBreed, explained to the platform.
