The Yorkshire waste management company announced its BSF farming programme earlier this year, but this is the first time it will rear the larvae itself.
The flies are used for its bioconversion “Insectology” process for food waste management.
Steve Carrie, group director at MYGroup, said: “With the vertical integration of egg supply directly into our Insectology process, together with enhanced breeding and hatching capabilities, we’re able to ensure optimal quality, reliability and transparency at every stage.
“Beta Bugs are the perfect partner – innovative, highly specialised and equally committed to scaling BSF bioconversion as a mainstream solution for food waste and the sustainable protein market.”
Under the joint venture, Beta Bugs will become MYGroup’s exclusive supplier of BSF eggs, with a new breeding and hatching facility to be established at the waste management company’s The Maltings site at South Milford, near Leeds.
The new in-house breeding and hatching facility will allow MYGroup to manage its Insectology process end-to-end.
The process sees food waste fed to the BSF larvae which reduce it and metabolise the matter, producing a biofertilizer.
The larvae itself can then be used as a protein source, usually in the animal feed market.
Insect bioconversion has been shown to reduce waste volumes by 75% in under 10 days.
Thomas Farrugia, CEO and founder of Beta Bugs, said: “The team at MYGroup, supported by Beta Bugs products and expertise, has rapidly developed a very robust BSF production process.
“As a specialist insect genetics company, this model of collaboration confirms our belief that combined efforts between insect genetic companies such as ourselves and partner-producers such as MYGroup are what will enable this industry to upscale and take flight.
“We look forward to scaling operations together and enabling the UK and international markets to develop even further.”
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