Keith Driver, COO of Enterra Feed was on hand at the former Marion Power Shovel Building facility in Marion, Ohio to announce that Enterra will be building its second high-tech facility to manufacture sustainably produced feed ingredients.
“It is very exciting for our company to announce this opportunity to join the Marion business community and build our second major production facility here in Marion, Ohio. Representatives from the various levels of government, leaders from the community and industry have been very good to work with,” described Driver at the official lease signing of the project.
Construction will commence in December with the facility to be located in the 200,000 square foot Marion Power Shovel building. The cost to prepare the facility with proprietary equipment and be fully operational will be approximately $35 million.
Marion Industrial Center President, Ted Graham, explained, “The Marion Power Shovel Building has been at the center of major historical contributions to mankind and society over its history. From being the home of the shovels that built the Panama Canal, to being the site where NASA crawlers were constructed to help put man into space. Now it will be the home of the revolutionary concept of using insects as a sustainable protein source in the manufacture of animal feed.”
Since 2007, Enterra has pioneered sustainable production of nutrition-rich insects for animal feed in North America. Investment in excess of $50 million for R&D has allowed Enterra to be a world leader in developing insects as a sustainable supply of ingredients for animal feed. Using recycled pre-consumer food waste as feedstock, the company farms and harvests black soldier fly larvae, a beneficial insect that reproduces swiftly under controlled conditions and are processed into high value animal feed products. The larvae production process is completely sustainable, diverting food waste that would normally go to landfills, compost operations, or be incinerated.
Once the Ohio Plains facility is running, it will employ 30 staff. In addition, during construction several local trades and suppliers will be required to bring the project to completion.
“The commitment that Enterra is making in Marion will provide a great opportunity for additional jobs both during construction and once the facility is up and running,” said Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of Columbus 2020.
EnterraGrubs, the whole dried larvae, can be fed directly to poultry and birds or mixed with other ingredients to produce formulated feeds for fish, poultry and pets. Further processing of the larvae produces EnterraProtein (meal component) and EnterraOil (fat component), both of which can also be blended into a variety of animal feeds.
Sales of Enterra products continue to show high growth in aquaculture, poultry and pet food, as feed producers look for novel ingredients and sustainable replacements for resource-intensive inputs like fishmeal, soybean meal, coconut oil and palm kernel oil.
