Bulgarian Scientific Project Participates in a Million Dollar Competition

A Bulgarian project to create "farms" for growing a special kind of flies that feeds on organic waste and process them into proteins and larvae to be used for the production of animal feeds competes for award-winning funding for the realization of the innovative idea. NASEKOMO, a Bulgarian-French family, was selected to present Bulgaria to the global final of the Chivas Venture 2018 business competition, which will take place at the TNW conference in Amsterdam in May 2018.

Annually, the competition supports innovative companies using the power of entrepreneurship to change the environment around for the better. The Bulgarian startup, that will present our country at the final of the competition, is developing a socially responsible business based on technology to convert organic waste into an alternative source of protein by breeding larvae of the Black Soldier fly insect. The NASEKOMO project is based on the concept of circular economy and plans to grow larvae of the type of fly that can quickly and efficiently convert organic waste into protein by feeding on and harvesting protein biomass. After processing, this biomass is used to feed animals where larvae are a natural part of nutrition.

The realization of the project would solve the problem of the accumulation of organic waste which, when decayed, emit methane and contribute to air pollution and the growing need for proteins, for which the traditional industries spend the scarce natural resources - arable land, water and fish stock. Proteins produced in this way will also allow farmers to feed their animals cheaper. "We created NASEKOMO because we deeply believe that many of the most significant problems facing our society have their own decisions that do not require huge budgets but rather...