Biotech company Nasekomo says its proprietary insect farming platform, developed in partnership with Siemens, has achieved a 25% feed conversion ratio (FCR) — a performance level that sets a new benchmark for profitability and scale-up within the insect bioconversion sector.

The Automated Insect Rearing Beds and Bots platform combines precision engineering with digital intelligence. The fully automated platform uses robotics, AI, and deep-substrate vertical farming to optimize larvae growth with lower mortality rates. It also reduces energy use.

Nasekomo says the FCR sets a new record as it is one-third higher than that of traditional crate-based solutions. It was obtained in real industrial conditions at a Nasekomo facility in Bulgaria.

It confirms the viability of a zero-crate, fully-automated approach to rearing Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae at scale. 

Intelligence insect surveillance 

This is the industry’s first modular and robotic platform that automates every step of insect rearing, including feed loading and neonates seeding to environmental monitoring, harvesting, and cleaning. 

“This is a key moment for our industry. The result shows how insect farming can truly scale and compete. At the current improvement rates, we aim to operate at this efficiency level or more in the short term from 2026 onwards. Furthermore, our process has much lower mortality rates than in crate-based systems,” says Marc Bolard, co-founder and CEO of Nasekomo.

Why is 25% FCR a breakthrough for insect farming?

Ballard says a 25% FCR will make insect farming competitive and means the company can consider entering markets like pet food, aquaculture, and poultry. 

The platform redefines industrial insect farming through deep-substrate vertical farming, robotics and AI-powered analyses, and full environmental control. Crucially, it does not use crates. 

“Our system allows us to monitor in real-time the entire volume of the rearing substrate with up to 20 cm height. We collect and act on data throughout the process, something crates simply can’t offer. The platform allows us interventions at any moment during the process,” adds Kamen Vasilev, head of bioconversion and processing at Nasekomo.

Optimizing larvae growing 

The platform can adjust humidity and temperature at every stage of larvae growing. It uses a robotic system equipped with integrated sensors that can adapt and be flexible while closely monitoring the entire process and making real-time decisions. 

The system senses the need for mixing, watering, refeeding, cooling, and heating. This stabilizes the process and development while maximizing growth throughout.

Each platform unit has a processing capacity of around 16,000 tons of feed per year, potentially yielding up to 4,000 tons of larvae annually at the 25% FCR rate. It integrates advanced AI for monitoring, intervention, and optimization.

The platform has been developed over the last five years and is protected by five patents, with 18 more pending. 

“The platform is future-proof, and we’ll keep developing it thanks to our partnership with Siemens, which brings industrial-grade precision and digital intelligence into insect farming,” continues Bolard.

“The next milestone is proving consistent profitability at scale. We’re nearly there. Our automated rearing platform is already delivering strong performance, and we’re refining the other components of our value proposition — genetics, AI, operations, and network scalability.” 

“Our goal in the next two years is to deliver an integrated, replicable bioconversion project that’s efficient, profitable, and sustainable. This will serve as a showcase, not just for what insect farming can be, but for what it should be.” 

Insect farming gains traction

The insect farming industry has been gathering pace in recent years as demand for sustainable and clean animal feed continues to grow. Insects are often cited as being more environmentally friendly and a viable ethical alternative to other animal proteins. 

In January, Spanish biotech firm Tebrio began construction of the world’s largest insect farm in Salamanca, Spain, which will produce over 100,000 metric tons of protein and lipid products annually from the mealworm Tenebrio molitor — a species of darkling beetle. 

The industry has also been exploring insect proteins as a sustainable food source for some time now. In 2015, the EU designated mealworms as the first insect to be used as a novel food source, and the first novel authorization for insect protein came in 2021 when the EU allowed the commercialization of dried yellow mealworms and derived products across its market.