Salamanca, (EFE).- The biotechnological Tebrio will open in 2024 in Salamanca what it claims will be the “largest insect farm in the world”, with 100,000 tons of products per year, as detailed this Wednesday by the mayor of the city, Carlos García Carbayo , during the presentation of the industrial zone in which it will settle.
The construction of these insect breeding and transformation facilities will begin “immediately” on 90,000 square meters of the 130,000 industrial land that Salamanca is developing in the Peña Alta sector.
“It is an innovation project that will begin work in a few days, the first company that will serve as a driving force for technological and industrial development in this place,” García Carbayo announced in statements to the media.
The mayor made this presentation together with the Minister of Mobility and Digital Transformation, María González Corral, from the land where the Intermodal Logistics Platform of Salamanca, known as Puerto Seco, will be built in Peña Alta, about 15 minutes by road from the capital.
The urbanization works of the 130,000 square meters of industrial land in Peña Alta will conclude in a month, which “will open the door for more companies to join Tebrio in Salamanca,” said the mayor.
Mealworm transformation
Tebrio produces Tenebrio molitor, commonly known as the mealworm, a species of beetle from which top-quality protein and fat, biofertilizer and chitosan are extracted.
In 2015, the company opened the first approved insect production plant in the European Union for animal feed. In 2019, it became the first biotech company in the world to obtain authorization to manufacture organic fertilizers made from insects, the company explains on its website.
Tebrio, which with its massive insect farm plans to employ more than 250 people, was born in 2014 in the city of Salamanca with the aim of “providing innovative and 100% sustainable solutions to the agri-food industry”.
