Bug Appétit: The Crunchy Truth Behind Insect Flour, the Future of Sustainable Food

UAO-COP16 Media Centre

Andrés Felipe Copete Villa, is a 32-year-old entrepreneur from Cali, who chose the most unusual thing to create a company: manufacturing flour made from insects (larvae and crickets) and fruit waste to feed laying hens. Its aim is to produce a sustainable alternative with an option that is friendlier to the planet.

The ‘Grupo Siclos’ project came to light in 2020 when he was still working as a chef in a fast food restaurant, where when he saw how the food waste was being dumped into the rubbish bin, he felt helpless , because he believes he remains. beneficial use , although at first even he himself did not understand how.

Nothing stopped his desire to contribute in one way or another to the environment. So, with a mind full of dreams and a motivated heart, but no money and much less support, this young man unleashed his essence as an entrepreneur: the one who strives, perseveres, falls and rises back, the one that doesn’t get back up. And it was in one of those many attempts that he finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

The same year, the National Learning Service, SENA, gave him support to develop his project, helping him prepare the flour and providing the laboratories to carry out the proposal.

From his home he started with small solar dehydrators where he peeled all kinds of fruit and vegetables and then ground them into powder.

The process with insects was similar and remains the same: initiation, growth, finishing and sacrifice. In the latter, the insects are frozen, then go through solar dehydration, to finish the crushing stage.

Friends and family trusted Andrés Felipe as an entrepreneur, but not in entrepreneurship. They knew him so well that they knew this man was full of potential to achieve anything he set his mind to, but they also thought he was a complete madman. For that, they encouraged him to sell shirts or shorts, while he only had his sights set on the goal he had set for himself. Create a sustainable business that will help take care of the environment.

They called him stubborn, stubborn and foolish, but now he confirms that it was the same foolishness, stubbornness and stubbornness that prevented him from looking back, from only moving forward, regardless of what the future held for him , as someone who closes his place. eyes and jumps into the void, like someone walking on water, just remembering that leaving the comfort of their old job would mean fighting for a new future.

Siclos Group is starting to get more visibility

In 2022, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies of Colombia supported her initiative with a website on which she began to publish all her products, expanding her business regionally and nationally, reaching a greater reach and generating more sales.

Copete highlights the fact that there are several entities that trusted his proposal, such as the Economic Development Secretariat, the Technological Innovation program of the Tecnoparque SENA Network and the Cali Chamber of Commerce, the latter being the one he is now receiving in hand with him, since , without giving up for a moment and seeing how his dreams come true, debuted on the stand of this entity, located in the Green Zone proposed by COP16, near the church of La Ermita, by showing everyone who passed the initiative he is proposing leaving on one side cutting down trees for food production and getting them from insects and organic waste, nourishing farm animals, especially laying hens, he is also starting sell eggs.

A multi-brand enterprise

Currently, Andrés has made the Siclos Group a business with a circular economy, as other brands are emerging from this where he converts any type of “waste” into a cycle, such as the Nido brand, which focus on building egg combs, through 3D printing, reusing plastic from bottles from different companies for its production, or the Sense brand, with the aim of dehydrating fruit and vegetables, on the verge of decline.

And as if that wasn’t enough, even the excrement of the insects he feeds the laying hens with is of great importance, as it is used to produce the fertilizer he offers to the public, like many of its products.

This entrepreneur, proud of Cali, has decided not to settle for small things, and has challenged himself to go beyond what he can even imagine. Even at this point he confirms that he still has a lot to climb, and his plans are to enter the digital world, be a content creator, not only promoting products, but learning how to leave a mark in the middle of nature, giving other young people who want to follow your dreams, how to do it in a way that positively affects the environment, being evidence that dreams come true, even if they cost a little at first.

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