Île-à-la-Crosse, Sask., company teams up with flies-as-food startup to provide fish guts as feed

An Île-à-la-Crosse, Sask., fishing company has made a deal to use fish waste to feed flies instead of dumping it in the landfill.

NRGene Canada, an agriculture technology company, announced on Jan. 16 it was teaming up with Île-à-la-Crosse Fish Company to use fish waste to feed black soldier fly larvae.

NRGene was started in 2020 with the goal of making food out of flies. The company collaborated with a Swiss technology group called Bühler to set up the North American Insect Centre at Innovation Place on the University of Saskatchewan campus as a testing ground for its research. 

The goal is to turn fly larvae into products like pet food or other feeds by drying the black soldier fly larvae and processing it.

The new deal with Île-à-la-Crosse Fish Company will provide unused fish waste to feed to the black soldier flies before they lay eggs.

"Our people in general have always [been] about sustainable development and conservation, so we're excited about having a value added product such as the fish waste to be used by NRGene," said Darwin Roy, the Île-à-la-Crosse Fish Company business development manager, on CBC's The 306.

Roy added that "by all indications" the fish waste is the best feed for the flies.

Currently the operation is in a pilot phase. Roy said the company trucks around 350 kilograms of fish guts 465 kilometres from the northern community of about 1,400 people all the way to NRGene's Saskatoon lab.

"Certainly it'll be impacting the community," he said.

"[There] is just a certain community pride that's going to come out of this partnership."

NRGene general manager for Canada, Masood Rizvi, said that while still in the early stages, the ultimate plan is to build a facility right in Île-à-la-Crosse. He said the partnership has been in the works since June of last year.

"It was a perfect combination between us and them to bring something which is more [of a] circular economy, which is more sustainable and really helping both our company and their communities," Masood said.