Buggy Blend – nutritionally optimised, alternative protein pet food range (insect-based)

Opportunity For

• Australian and international companies interested in commercialising novel products in the pet food industry
• Existing pet food manufacturing businesses interested in diversified opportunities
• Insect farming businesses interested in enhanced production outcomes and/or partnering into value-added productisation opportunities
• Investors interested in sustainable alternative protein products

Opportunity description

Industry challenge: Globally there is a growing appetite for alternative protein products that can deliver health and wellness outcomes while addressing sustainability, climate change and resource constraints exacerbated by ongoing population growth. Pet food (worth $2.4bn in Australia and $102.9bn globally according to statista) closely tracks human food in this area. It is a significant user of enriched protein with consumers increasingly seeking, or being open to, differentiated alternative protein options. Despite this appetite, there had been limited exploration of production inputs and manufacturing techniques to deliver enhanced nutritional outcomes and differentiated products.

Current opportunity: There is an opportunity to enter a commercial relationship with Buggy Bix to assist scaling and distribution of their insect-based pet food product range Buggy Blend in Australian and international markets.

The Buggy Blend pet food products have been developed and extensively tested in conjunction with Western Sydney University with support from AgriFutures Australia.

Buggy Bix’s initial go-to-market products are extruded dog and cat kibbles which incorporate black soldier fly larvae as the primary protein source. The Buggy Blend range includes six everyday dog and cat food products which have been uniquely formulated to meet nutritional needs whilst maintaining a strong environmental value proposition.

An additional product range has been developed using mealworms as the primary protein source. The launch of this range which offers everyday dog and cat food options mirroring the existing product suite will be staged to align with scaling of production facilities.

Development follows research focused by the Australian edible insect industry and led by AgriFutures Australia on the potential nutritional benefit of using different feed substrates, optimised to produced high yield and protein ingredients with the right amino acid balance and the impact(s) on insects from existing manufacturing and production techniques.

Potential market: Australia has one of the highest pet ownership rates in the world and is seeing the continuing consumer trend to alternative protein and meat free options translate into the pet food category. Around 61% of households owned 29 million pets in 2019 with 40% and 27% of households owning dog(s) and cat(s) respectively. Pet adoption and regard for health and wellness thematics have only intensified during the Covid period creating opportunities for new entrants to disrupt the traditional pet food category. Buggy Bix is able to provide breakdowns of the potential market opportunities for each segment.

Other opportunities: Beyond the immediate opportunity, there exists the potential to expand BuggyBix’s product range across other pet categories and/or to use alternate insect species for both domestic and/or international markets.