Using insects as an insect-based bio-refinery for converting waste biomass into protein as energy might be not new for us. How about using cockroaches? China is definitely the leading country for this.

In the Shandong Qiaobin Agricultural Technology Co, located in the suburbs of Jinan, capital of eastern Shandong province, a billion cockroaches are being fed with 50 tons of kitchen waste a day – the equivalent in weight to seven adult elephants.

The waste is delivered at the plant run by the company daily before dawn, then it is fed through pipes to cockroaches in their cells.

The company plans to build more such plants next year, aim to handle one-third of the kitchen waste produced by Jinan, a province with seven million dwellers.

Cockroaches seem to be a protein-rich source for feeding livestock, especially in the case that African swine fever outbreaks leading to a nationwide ban on feeding food waste to pigs. “Cockroaches are a bio-technological pathway for the converting and processing of kitchen waste”, said Yusheng Liu, president of Shandong Insect Industry Association.

In Good Doctor, a Chinese medicine and health product company, there are about 3.6 billion Periplaneta Americana cockroaches. The so-called cockroach has a 200-year documented history in Chinese medicine to treat injuries, said Funeng Geng – president of Good Doctor.

Food Doctor supplies its cockroach potion to thousands of Chinese hospitals and pharmacies for diabetic ulcers and severe skin wounds treatments. The company made 6.3 billion Chinese Yuan ($1.3 billion) revenue last year. The “Recovery New Potion” which was work a billion yuan was the best seller, which can be drunk or used on the skin.

A former mobile phone vendor, Mr. Li, invested a million yuan ($146,300) in cockroaches, which he sells to pig farms and fisheries as feed and to drug companies as medicinal ingredients. There are 3.4 million cockroaches on his farm and he plans to create more 20 farms to rear more cockroaches.

Updated by Trang Nguyen
Dec 13, 2018