New resource-efficient types of production for Finnish farms

Problem

Meat production requires significant amounts of land and water and current production causes a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, Finnish farms, are struggling with profitability problems. Significant quantities of completely edible cucumbers, for example, end up simply becoming part of anaerobic digestion processes, as a result of the cucumbers not fulfilling retail size or shape requirements.

Solution: insects as a source of nutrition

Finsect helps farms begin insect production. Vegetable mass, such as cucumbers that would otherwise be sent for anaerobic digestion, can be used as nutrition for insects. The benefits of insect production are the efficient, vertical use of space, significantly lower water consumption compared to that required by meat production and lower greenhouse gas emissions. The feed efficiency ratio of insects is also much better than with beef, for example – one kilogram of beef requires over 10 kilograms of feed, whereas one kilogram of insects can be produced with only 2 kilograms of feed.

Revenue logic and benefits to Finsect

Finsect sells a producer package to farms, which includes, for example, the farming equipment, an initial insect population, construction consulting and guidance services at all stages of the farming. Finsect customers form an insect production network, from which the company buys the produced insect raw materials for resale in accordance with the contract. This also allows Finsect to operate without large production facilities to produce raw materials and improves production risk management.

Benefits to customers and end users

For Finsect customers, insect production is still largely a side business, which aims to address the profitability problems with agriculture. In addition, beginning insect production allows the productive reuse of rooms and buildings that are no longer being used for production. For consumers, the solution provides a way to buy a new, Finnish, sustainable, ecological and high-quality source of protein.