Insect Technology Group, AgriProtein parent company, in administration in the UK

21-May-2021 - Last updated on 24-May-2021 at 07:30 GMT

The Insect Technology Group Holdings UK Limited (ITG), AgriProtein's parent company, has entered into administration.

Administrator, UHY Hacker Young, was appointed to manage the business and property of ITG Limited in February this year.

Jason Drew, non-executive director of ITG, is unable to comment on the process at this juncture, given that it is a legal process. He said he will provide a fuller picture in due time.

AgriProtein was set up in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2008 to rear Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae on organic wastes and process them into a sustainable source of feed protein.

In 2017, the business moved its global headquarters to London. It also announced then a strategy to partner with construction conglomerate Christof Industries to build 100 new factories worldwide.

It attracted millions of investment monies, with it securing US$105m from a undisclosed, single listed investor in June 2018.

And, in October 2020, ITG announced its participating in an industry consortium that had received £10m in funding from a UK government program to work alongside Fera, the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) and Zero Waste Scotland on a project to model and showcase to entrepreneurs, governments, and agricultural stakeholders the industrial opportunity for insect protein and waste management at scale in the UK.

In February this year it announced it was the process of restructuring in relation to its flagship Cape Town facility.

“Our initial development site at Philippi in Cape Town has played an integral role since its first iteration in 2011. Over the last few years, our Cape Town team have been actively contributing to future project designs as well as trialing and refining new equipment and processes prior to their deployment at our G-Series sites. As we have advanced our US partnership and future G-Series projects, the need for our Philippi facility has significantly reduced. This, alongside the continued coronavirus headwinds, has led to the difficult decision to review the continuation of our South African operations, subject to due process.”