Kitchen Waste Challenge / Largest Black Soldier Fly Base Revealed: Young Entrepreneurs Chase 4 Business Opportunities with One Insect

Banquet feasts, gourmet food in department stores and shopping malls – these mundane routines will become a storm for food and retail giants when the era of feeding pigs with food waste ends in 2027. The 99% disposal pressure is like a structural tsunami of surplus food on shelves and tables.

(Central News Agency reporter Jiang Mingyan, Yunlin, 12th) In an unremarkable industrial zone in Huwei, Yunlin County, several old factory buildings stand without prominent signage, showing no sign of a star industry. It's hard to imagine this is currently Taiwan's largest commercial-scale black soldier fly (BSF) breeding base.

As the 2027 policy to completely ban feeding food waste to pigs enters its final countdown, and all of Taiwan searches for new ways to dispose of food waste, a group of entrepreneurs in their 30s (born in the 1980s and 1990s) have been dedicated to this niche track for nearly 7 years.

"This could very well be the key solution to Taiwan's food waste problem," said Hong Zih-heng, manager of Cicun Biotechnology, walking into the factory and expertly scooping up a handful of densely packed BSF larvae, letting them squirm in his palm.

From food processing residues to the potentially massive influx of future food waste, the unremarkable, wriggling BSF is being hailed as a new star in the circular economy. But for Qian Bo-lun, founder and general manager of Cicun Biotechnology, the reality of this business is far less easy than outsiders imagine.

"When African swine fever broke out, we received a flood of inquiry calls, and more demand from food and beverage operators," Qian said with a wry smile regarding the possibility of rapid expansion. "Due to team energy and site selection constraints, it's hard to scale up production quickly while we're still stabilizing. Actually doing it reveals the path is far tougher than imagined."

The opportunity for Cicun Biotechnology dates back to August 2018, when an outbreak of African swine fever in Liaoning, China, raised Taiwan's epidemic prevention alert and sparked a debate on banning food waste for pig feed. Cicun was born from this context.

Qian, a graduate of National Chung Hsing University's life science program who later pursued advanced studies at National Taiwan University's Institute of Oceanography, originally worked in the tech industry. After seeing foreign cases of using BSF to process organic waste, he decided to start a business in Taiwan, moving from Taipei to Miaoli.

His partner Hong, who encountered the concept of circular agriculture while studying environmental engineering at Tunghai University, had previously started his own business focusing on BSF fertilizer research. He soon realized the difficulties of going it alone and eventually joined the Cicun team to complement their expertise.

Adding equipment specialist Shen Wei-xuan, the Cicun team brings together talents from environmental engineering, biology, and equipment engineering, forming a rare cross-disciplinary combination. The company's shareholder lineup is also noteworthy, including Qian and his family's holdings, as well as strategic investors from waste treatment, green energy, and fertilizer industries.

Cicun Biotechnology has now established facilities in Miaoli and Yunlin, and has won a tender from the Hsinchu City Government to build a third plant. Qian noted that compared to the scale of investment, the BSF industry needs investors willing to commit long-term, and the company expects to turn a profit this year.

Entering the Huwei factory, rows of massive equipment 30 meters long and nearly 3 meters wide come into view. This is Cicun's self-developed, patent-pending six-layer S-type automated system.

"The top layer receives larvae just 0.2 cm long, hatched six days prior. Automated pipelines extrude a mud-like feed into the system. Each day, all materials automatically descend one level. After seven days, the material reaches the bottom layer, the larvae have completed their growth, and the harvest process begins," Hong explained, watching the larvae on the conveyor belt.

A single BSF automated production line can process about 3 tons of organic waste daily. The Yunlin plant currently has four systems, with a daily processing capacity of 10 to 12 tons.

What do BSF eat? Hong said the Huwei plant primarily uses plant-based materials like bran and corn gluten feed as the main nutrient source, supplemented with lactic acid bacteria. Upon arrival, the moisture content and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio are adjusted according to the weather to create a formula suitable for BSF growth before feeding the larvae.

"Feeding BSF a vegetarian diet" is also related to conversion efficiency and regulations. Hong pointed out that plant-based raw materials yield more stable production data and expand the application range of the resulting feed. If BSF consume food waste containing animal ingredients, the feed produced cannot be used for pig farming.

"Many people think using BSF to process food waste is expensive. I actually want to defend them," Qian said. Compared to incineration, landfill, or traditional composting, the biggest feature of BSF is its ability to simultaneously create multiple economic values, reducing reliance on processing fee income.

Hong noted that after seven days of feeding, the fully grown larvae are first sterilized at high temperature, then washed, dried, and finally ground into protein powder for feed used in fish and shrimp aquaculture, poultry, livestock, and pets.

The remaining insect frass, exuviae, and undigested plant fibers are processed into organic fertilizer. A key feature is that the exuviae contain natural chitin, which can induce beneficial bacteria in the soil to suppress soil-borne diseases like nematodes.

"Currently, both fertilizer and feed are sold out at full production," Qian shared. Besides assisting waste treatment, the insect bodies can be made into high-protein feed, the frass and exuviae into organic fertilizer, and insect oil has future potential for sustainable aviation fuel. "A single BSF has at least three to four layers of economic value."

"In the past, we spent a lot of time convincing feed mills and farmers. Fortunately, with price optimization and increased market awareness and acceptance, demand is now gradually coming to us," Qian said.

With the phase-out of feeding food waste to pigs in 2027, BSF is poised for explosive growth. Cicun recently won a tender from the Hsinchu City Government to plan a food waste treatment plant with a daily capacity of 24 tons, gradually taking on the responsibility of processing household food waste from Hsinchu City.

However, compared to the plant-based materials currently used, household food waste has complex components, often mixed with plastics, bones, and grease, posing a significant operational challenge for the next stage.

Qian admitted that the Hsinchu plant will require additional front-end processing steps like dewatering, degreasing, solid-liquid separation, and crushing before the BSF can feed smoothly. Cicun has adopted a strategy of "core self-development, mature peripheral equipment integration," drawing on proven front-end processing modules from Europe and the US.

"Although many companies and counties have expressed demand for BSF, it's difficult to quickly replicate and scale up due to manpower and site constraints," he said with resignation.

Outsiders often think the biggest challenge in raising BSF is biological technology, but the real difficulties lie in talent, site selection, funding, and scaling.

Hong stated that the BSF industry simultaneously involves expertise in biological breeding, environmental engineering, mechanical design, automation control, feed science, and fertilizer application. "Such a combination of talent is extremely hard to find."

Second is site selection. Even though BSF themselves do not transmit diseases, any facility involving waste treatment is often viewed as a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) facility by residents. "From land acquisition and factory registration to local communication, every step is full of challenges," Hong admitted.

Qian revealed that the time and cost of building trust with local communities far exceeded initial expectations. To address odor issues, Cicun has implemented a complete environmental control system, using negative pressure design to collect exhaust, which is then treated in a scrubber before discharge. "Even so, community communication remains a long-term effort."

The third challenge is scaling and capital. Qian analyzed that for a commercially scaled BSF factory, even with an existing technical foundation, equipment investment alone requires NT$30 million to NT$40 million. Adding factory buildings and infrastructure often doubles the total investment, not including R&D, marketing, market education, and regulatory communication costs. This is why BSF operators are often heard to have closed down or withdrawn.

Furthermore, BSF is ultimately an industry addressing essential livelihood issues. Qian admitted, "Fertilizer and feed products ultimately have to be sold to pig, chicken, and fish farmers or growers. This means the price must be affordable for farmers and for the fish, shrimp, and livestock to consume."

In recent years, there has been no shortage of marketing claims like "you can raise BSF in a single shipping container."

Qian believes small-scale systems are suitable for food and agricultural education demonstrations, but to truly produce market-competitive products, industrialization and scaling are necessary. Even though Cicun is considered a leading player in Taiwan, he only dares to say, "We are just stabilizing our footing."

To process food waste from pig farming, the Ministry of Environment estimates that BSF processing capacity needs to increase from the current 72 tons per day to 213 tons by the end of 2026, nearly a threefold increase in one year.

Qian admitted this growth rate is relatively optimistic, but he also doesn't believe BSF can solve all food waste problems alone.

In his ideal blueprint, every county and city in Taiwan should establish at least one or two BSF processing facilities, forming a decentralized processing network. If achieved, this could digest 400 to 600 tons of food waste daily, accounting for about 20% of Taiwan's total.

"But there is still a long way to go to reach this goal," Qian said. BSF is not an overnight, replicable solution; it is more like a long-term industrial project requiring the accumulation of technology, capital, policy, social communication, and time. (Edited by Chang Li-chih, Lin Shu-yuan) 1150612