RESEARCHERS and entrepreneurs across the Caribbean are testing whether black soldier fly larvae can turn food and agricultural waste into locally produced feed for poultry, livestock and fish, reducing the region’s exposure to costly imports and international supply disruptions.

Scientifically known as Hermetia illucens, the insect is being explored as a potential way to reduce food waste, produce locally sourced protein for livestock and aquaculture, and strengthen the resilience of regional food systems.

The wider regional challenge is underscored by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) data showing that 51.9 per cent of the Caribbean population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2024.

According to Derek Luk Pat, founder and managing director of the Circular Caribbean Company, the challenge extends beyond having enough food on supermarket shelves to ensuring farmers have affordable and reliable access to the inputs needed to produce it.

“If you go even deeper in the value chain, down to feeding our animals and fish, we depend heavily on imported inputs,” he told the Jamaica Observer during a recent interview.

He said the black soldier fly could help to reduce that vulnerability by converting suitable organic waste and agricultural by-products into protein-rich biomass that can be processed into animal feed.

Unlike the common housefly, the black soldier fly is not generally regarded as a household pest. Adults do not bite or sting, but it is at the larval stage that the insect attracts the greatest interest.

The larvae consume organic material and convert it into biomass, rich in protein and fats. The residue left after the larvae feeds, known as frass, can also be used to enrich soil.

“You are taking organic waste, which is normally just literally wasted or other by-products of agriculture, and these larvae feed on it,” Luk Pat said. “The larvae itself is being used, either live or in a dried form, as a locally produced protein source for animal feed.”

The potential for the Caribbean, according to the circular economy specialist, extends beyond waste management.

With the region now importing substantial quantities of feed ingredients for livestock and aquaculture, this often leaves producers exposed to international shipping disruptions, commodity-price increases, and other external shocks.

“Disruptions will not only hit what you see on a supermarket shelf…It also will affect what the companies here use to produce or manufacture food,” Luk Pat said.

The technology is already being tested through an FAO-led project involving Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Agriculture, Land and Fisheries; The University of the West Indies (The UWI), St Augustine campus; and Fera Science Ltd. In 2023 the partners began work to establish a pilot insect-production facility in Trinidad and Tobago and support testing and training in Barbados, Grenada and Jamaica.

The project has examined black soldier fly production for animal feed, waste management, and crop nutrition. The FAO was still highlighting work under the initiative in April 2026, indicating that related research and development continued beyond its initial pilot stage.

Barbados, Grenada and Jamaica were included in the original regional project. Luk Pat said St Kitts has also expressed interest in conducting similar testing.

Luk Pat, through FedUp Caribbean, another venture he co-founded, has also been working with The UWI to test spent brewery grain as a potential feedstock.

Spent grain is produced in large quantities by breweries, and where it is not reused can become a waste management challenge. Channelling it into black soldier fly production could, however, create a higher-value agricultural product.

“Such systems could also encourage partnerships among farmers, food processors, breweries, waste management companies, researchers and insect producers,” Luk Pat said. He said the next step is to determine whether black soldier fly farming can operate economically at small and medium scales.

“The technology could be particularly relevant to small farmers and agri-entrepreneurs that lack the capital or infrastructure required for large-scale feed production,” he further noted.

Calling for stronger regional support for black solider fly farming, Luk Pat urged large organisations such as Caricom to consider strategies for developing the emerging industry.

“Technology alone will not create a regional insect-feed industry. Regulation, food safety, quality standards, financing, farmer training, reliable feedstock supplies and market acceptance will all have to develop alongside the technology,” he said. He added that regional standards would help determine how quickly the industry develops.

He also called for greater collaboration among government, academia, private enterprise and civil society.

“We are trying through the different efforts to get the attention of all of the relevant policymakers,” he said, particularly those responsible for agriculture, local development, and the environment.

“When you have those four together you tend to find that you will be able to advance the solutions a bit more rapidly.”

Careful in not presenting black soldier flies as a silver bullet for the Caribbean’s food security challenges, Luk Pat said that while the region will continue to depend on imports, food security would not mean producing everything locally, but reducing vulnerabilities and creating more local options when international supply chains are disrupted. Black soldier fly farming will play a role in that effort.

“We waste so much food at the primary agricultural level, at the processing level, and at the retail level. If organic waste can be transformed into locally produced feed ingredients while residual material helps return nutrients to the soil, the region would be doing more than finding another way to dispose of waste,” Luk Pat said.

LUK PAT…you are taking organic waste, which is normally just literally wasted or other byproducts of agriculture, and
these larvae feed on it, The larvae itself is being used, either live or in a dried form, as a locally produced protein source for animal feed