For several decades now, fish meal has been central to the formulation of good quality feed. Due to its protein content and high palatability for farmed animals, it became known as a gold standard animal protein source. However, given that the production of aquatic animals is steadily growing while the wild-caught anchovies, herrings, and sand eels are under increasing threats from overfishing and environmental impacts such as El Nino, one cannot help but ask a question: What will replace it? More and more often, the answer seems to be coming from insects.
With the advent of insect protein, which is produced from larvae of the BSF (Black Soldier Fly), mealworms, crickets, and grasshoppers, the concept of sustainable protein has transformed into a thriving business. Insect products as fish feed have reached the hands of salmon farmers in Norway, shrimp farmers in Southeast Asia, broiler producers in Europe, and pet food manufacturers in North America.
Based on Dataintelo’s market research report, the value of the global insect protein for animal feed industry has been estimated at $2.1 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow up to $6.8 billion till 2034, with an annual growth rate of 13.8%. Those figures describe an industry well past the pilot phase — one operating at genuine commercial scale and gathering momentum.
The Problem with Conventional Protein Sources
The vulnerabilities of the fishmeal supply chain have become harder to ignore. Peruvian anchovy the feedstock behind the majority of the world’s fishmeal production is acutely sensitive to El Niño ocean warming cycles, which periodically collapse stocks and send global prices spiking. Aquaculture feed prices decrease when catches decline, which adversely impacts the margins of salmon, trout, and shrimp producers who lack flexibility in formulation in the short term. Apart from the volatility factor, there is also a fundamental issue of growth in the aquaculture industry globally, which is anticipated to grow from 130 million metric tons in 2025 to 185 million metric tons in 2034, and it is impossible to produce enough sustainable wild fish catches for the fishmeal requirement.
The other protein source, soybean meal, is subject to another set of challenges. The instability in weather conditions in the major production areas of South America, which include Brazil and Argentina, has led to uncertainty in terms of supply owing to the inconsistency in rainfall along with resistance to herbicides, thus affecting yield levels. The export of soybean meal to other countries dropped by roughly 12% during the 2024-2025 growth period, causing prices to rise by 8-11%. across major producing nations. These twin supply headaches have made the search for alternatives more urgent than ever.
Why Insects Work
The nutritional case for insect protein is well established. Larvae of Black Soldier Fly contain crude protein levels that range between 42 and 48 percent together with 28–32 percent of lipids; a composition that is highly favorable for use in supplying energy needs of farmed fish and birds. Mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) contain high levels of crude proteins ranging from 45 to 52 percent but lower amounts of lipids. Grasshoppers and crickets can achieve crude protein levels of 48–55%, rivalling most conventional feed ingredients on amino acid completeness.
The environmental credentials are equally compelling. The cultivation of Black Soldier Fly takes about 80% less water and 92% less land compared to soy meal and also releases about 65% less greenhouse gases. The most important thing is that insects have an inherent compatibility within circular economic systems; BSF larvae can be grown on food waste products of breweries, meat factories, and food industries. One metric tonne of suitable organic waste yields 180–220 kilograms of insect biomass, creating economics that can be further subsidised through waste management tipping fee revenues.
Market Dynamics and Application Segments
The aquaculture market holds the maximum share, comprising 42.5% of total market value at approximately $893 million in 2025 with an anticipated CAGR of 14.9% during 2025–2034. This application segment is driven to adopt insect protein due to its heavy reliance on marine proteins for a long time and all experimental trials carried out in salmon, trout, shrimp, and tilapia farms have proved to be successful. Poultry follows at 28.3% market share ($595 million), driven by global broiler production exceeding 68 billion birds annually. The swine category makes up 15.6% ($328 million), the rising adoption being due to the use of restrictions on the use of antimicrobials by the European Union in 2023, while the pet food category, making up 10.4% ($219 million), is growing at 16.2% CAGR, the fastest pace in the market. Of all the protein from insects segments, the Black Soldier Flies segment takes the top position with a market share of 38.2% based on market size ($803 million) due to their small larval stage cycle (14-21 days). The Mealworms segment accounts for a market share of 26.4% ($556 million) and Grasshoppers & Crickets for 20.3% ($427 million).
Regulatory Success Boosts Investments
Regulatory clarity has been essential to commercial confidence The regulatory grey area that had been a deterrent for major feed companies contemplating insects as an ingredient source was removed when the European Union approved insect-based proteins for aquaculture and livestock feeds involving seven different insect species, since May 2026. The UK market has been recording a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 16.2% since gaining similar regulatory clarity, with poultry integrators being some of the earliest adopters due to multiple interruptions in the supply chain from avian flu.
North America is poised for an identical tipping point. The US FDA is anticipated to provide official guidance concerning the use of insect proteins in animal feeds by the end of 2026. This move will provide access to 9.8 billion broilers per year. Regulatory approval through Canada’s Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Canada will be completed by Q3 2026, paving the way for demand from approximately 12 million metric tonnes of feed volume that could benefit. China has already lowered tariffs on insect protein in feed and is establishing regulations that are geared towards meeting the growth plans of its aquaculture industry, which makes up over 60% of the world’s production of farmed fish.
Performance Validation and Feed Science
Commercial adoption hinges on proven animal performance, and the evidence base has strengthened materially. Feed conversion ratios for insect protein-based aquaculture diets sit at 1.45–1.62, matching or exceeding fishmeal-based formulations averaging 1.50–1.70. Weight gain efficiency was noted to increase by 3% to 5%, while resistance to disease improved by 12% to 15% in farmed trout where insect meals were used to replace between 40% to 60% of fishmeal protein. In Southeast Asia, shrimp farmers have reported comparable growth efficiencies to those using fishmeal, together with cost savings of up to 15%-18% per tonne of feed.
In swine diets, insect protein inclusion has been associated with improved gut microbiota composition, reduced pre-weaning mortality of 2–3%, and stronger innate immunity particularly valuable as producers reformulate without therapeutic antibiotics. A study conducted at the University of Wageningen and published in the early part of 2025 showed that BSF meal was able to provide amino acids as fishmeal does once it is fortified with artificial methionine and cysteine, addressing a nutritional shortcoming that had been a hindrance in its adoption.
Key Players and Competition
As reported in the latest research, there are 40-50 active companies in the industry. However, the trend of consolidation has been developing because of the high capital expenditures needed to construct a factory that produces insects for feed with significant scale (approximately $180-280 million). There are two leading firms Protix of the Netherlands and French company Ynsect with their total investment exceeding $140 and $420 million, respectively, with goals of reaching more than 150,000 metric tons of production by 2028. AgriProtein from South Africa has differentiated itself in emerging markets through its business model of waste cheap sources of supply and cooperation with Indian and Southeast Asian clusters of aquaculture.
The medium level of competition is represented by the companies such as EnviroFlight of the US, InnovaFeed of France, Irish Hexafly, and Nutrition Technologies from Singapore that pursue certain strategies towards certain animal species or geographic regions. The decrease in cost in the industry due to development of technology of automation amounts to about 6-8% per year; the capacity of production in 2034 is estimated at 2.4-2.8 million metric tons with total capital investments of $4.2-5.8 billion.
The Road Ahead
Black Soldier Fly meal currently prices at $8.50–9.80 per kilogram, above fishmeal ($7.20–8.40) and considerably above soy meal ($4.80–5.60). That premium has been the primary friction point holding back wider adoption, but it is narrowing. As production scales and facility efficiency improves, pricing is expected to converge toward soy meal equivalency by 2030 at which point the total cost-of-ownership advantages of insect protein, including better feed conversion, reduced disease costs, and waste management revenues, could tip the economics decisively in its favour.
The environmental aspect provides yet another drive for the change. By switching to insect formulas, feed producers are reducing their Scope 3 emissions by 15-22%, thus helping them meet their ESG requirements and receive funding through green channels. Monetization of carbon credits through lifecycle-negative insect production is a new potential source of income that has been quantified as 3-5 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per one tonne of insect meal by third-party verifiers. Some big food producers are planning to introduce 25-35% content of insect proteins in their animal feeds by 2030.
The insect protein sector has crossed from aspiration to commercial reality. The global market expected to be worth three times what it is now by 2034, along with regulatory frameworks that have matured in all major producing regions, as well as the nutritional science that has been corroborated by increasing amounts of peer-reviewed literature, would seem to make insect-based feed ingredients mainstream rather than a niche product in both aquaculture and livestock feed. There is substantial significance in this development for an industry that has been seeking answers to the fish meal problem for many years.
Reference: https://dataintelo.com/report/global-insect-protein-for-animal-feed-market
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