There are changes that are being seen throughout the world, many may already know it, while others do not even imagine it. Ventures that go beyond the ordinary, always with the intention of being the difference and growing. Among them are more sustainable protein sources and investing in plant-based meat options, robotics, and other technologies – it all has its audience.
The Future: Edible Insect Industries
An example is the “edible insect” industries, which have a fundamental role to help feed the one billion more people who will live on the planet by the year 2,030, experts say, and therefore, combat catastrophic climate change .
It is worth mentioning that at the end of 2020, the British government invested 10 million pounds sterling in Entocycle, a company that is building the first industrial-scale insect farm in the United Kingdom.
In the year 2003, the United Nations (UN) highlighted the benefits of edible insects. Those who make up the organization reported that around 2 billion people in 130 countries, mainly in Asia and Africa, already include insects in their diet.
The UN itself said that by the year 2,050, the world population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion, which is why it is necessary to implement new mechanisms and double food production.
Other studies…
In 2013, the United Nations Food Organization (FAO), together with the Dutch Public University of Wageningen, published a study on the potential of insects for food and environmental sustainability. Tico Specialists, such as Alejandro Ortega, assure that the option to handle the food problem would be the industrialization of edible insects.
Alejandro Ortega, is a Costa Rican Mercadologist, ex-grant from the United States Department of State, with a focus on business communication and entrepreneurship and is the founder of Costa Rica Insect Company (Cric).
A promising alternative
For the specialist on the subject, “insects will offer a very promising alternative, they (insects) can be cultivated using fewer resources such as land, water, energy, among others. They can provide more proteins and contribute less to climate change. and lower levels of pollutants like ammonia.”
There are advantages and they are the new technologies and mechanism when processing. Costa Rica Insect Company is the first company to industrialize the edible insects business in Central America and despite this, Alejandro Ortega is currently outside the Costa Rican territory.
Why? And How?
From The Costa Rica News (TCRN), we spoke exclusively with Alejandro so that he tells us about his activities and why he is currently outside the Central American country. “We decided to leave Costa Rica, because new technologies and access to capital were needed, but the Tico and various Latin American governments have regulations. Mechanisms on edible insects have not yet been approved, which has prevented us from making exports,” he said. .
Long way ahead
His company continues to operate in Costa Rica although Ortega is in the Netherlands, with another company called Sibo. Likewise, they are waiting for other countries where they can create an industry “of the future”, in his opinion, “it is unfortunate that in Latin America corruption and the thinking of more vicious people continues to gain, in delimiting renewal, in controlling, everything is part of a quite socialist thought, that is not in favor of opportunities and free market”.
Everything is very opposite to Holland, where Alejandro and his team are developing a series of technologies, including the first extract of insect proteins, “we started designing it from Costa Rica, now we are executing from here, it would be totally soluble in water and we are also developing a biopolymer based on insects. We have raised capital and continue with the support of the Dutch government,” he declares. In Costa Rica, his company (Cric) is raising a capital of 100,000 dollars and with Sibo in the Netherlands, an approximate of 150,000 euros.
It should be noted that both companies are commissioned independently, and Alejandro Ortega always wanted to take the industry to the international level, which today he has achieved, wishing to continue, as long as there is good development of technologies and access to markets.
