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CubicFarms technology to be used for insect cultivation

CubicFarm Systems Corp. has sold its automated, controlled-environment system to Agragene Inc., a San Diego, U.S.-based ag-tech company developing novel biological pest protection for crops, utilizing live sterile male insects as a form of insect pest control.

This sale marks a new vertical for CubicFarms’ fresh produce system, which will now be used by Agragene to grow insects predictably in an indoor, controlled environment.

According to a statement from CubicFarms, “We look forward to collaborating with Agragene, another portfolio company of our shared strategic investor Ospraie Ag Science, to unlock potential synergies in the future.”

The machine purchased from CubicFarms is expected to be installed in San Diego by the end of the year.

“Our customers often bring us the best ideas for our technology. We already know that our systems automate the growing of commercial-scale quantities of fresh produce and livestock feed, and so we’re excited to be able to now offer a solution for insect farming,” says CubicFarms CEO Dave Dinesen. “Agragene is a great example of a customer taking our technology and applying it in a completely new business vertical. The most exciting thing for our company is having our customers utilize our existing flexible machine design to open up a world of possibilities for their growing.”

Agragene plans to trial the breeding of its proprietary insect lines to produce only sterile male crop pests inside the machine. The sterile males are then released into the field where they effectively and safely control the wild pest population. Upon satisfactory completion of the trial, Agragene plans to scale up its insect factory with multiple CubicFarms machines.

“CubicFarms appears to offer the best value in the market with a clearly superior product,” says Gordon Alton, CEO of Agragene. “We are excited to launch operations with the equipment as it will provide tremendous productivity in a small footprint. The simplicity of the design, yet allowing sophisticated control of the environmental conditions, was a key factor in our purchase decision.”

Source: CubicFarms