Poland’s Bemo to expand into cat food, boost export reach

Poland’s pet food maker Bemo specializes in holistic dog food, and it is planning to add wet and dry cat food to the firm’s growing product portfolio, according to a senior company representative.

Olga Forlicz, the marketing manager of Bemo, told Petfood Industry that the pet food business makes a wide range of dry and we dog food, as well as treats and snacks, and continues to invest in rolling out new products on a regular basis.

“We offer super premium dog food made with human grade ingredients,” she said. “We don’t use chicken meat and grains, and we put emphasis on fresh ingredients. We also produce supplements, and act as a subcontractor for some business partners.”

Based in Tarnów, in the country’s southern region of Podkarpacie, Bemo is making efforts to ramp up its export sales to a number of European and Asian markets, according to Forlicz.

“We continue to look for new foreign markets to which we could expand with our offer. Some of the latest destinations to which we have kicked off export sales include Hungary and Latvia,” the company’s marketing manager said.

In a statement, Bemo noted it produces its pet food, treats and supplements in Europe with the use of “the highest quality components without compromise.” 

“Our primary goal is to create safe, highly valuable, natural-based nutritional systems supported by scientific research from around the world,” said the company. “The results of our activities are Bemo products that meet the expectations of dogs and cats with the most demanding nutritional needs.”

Bulgaria’s Nasekomo hits insect farming milestone 

Bulgarian biotech firm Nasekomo has reached a major milestone in its industrial platform development focused on insect farming. The company’s proprietary Automated Insect Rearing Beds and Bots platform reached a 25% feed conversion ratio (FCR).

The startup said the record result, which is one-third higher than that of traditional crate-based solutions, was achieved in real industrial conditions at Nasekomo’s facility close to Bulgaria’s capital city, Sofia. 

“It confirms the viability of a zero-crate, fully automated approach to rearing Black Soldier Fly (BSF) larvae at scale. The milestone reflects five years of continuous development and optimization of the platform,” noted Nasekomo. 

“This is a key moment for our industry,” said Marc Bolard, co-founder and CEO of Nasekomo. “The result shows how insect farming can truly scale and compete. At the current improvement rates, we aim at operating at this efficiency level or more in the short term, from 2026 onwards. Furthermore, our process has much lower mortality rates than in crate-based systems.”

The Bulgarian startup said by 2050, the world’s food producers will have to make an additional 100 million tons of food annually. 

“This is the same amount of food we’ve produced for the past 8,000 years, creating an unimaginable strain on the feed industry and our planet,” said Nasekomo. 

The Sofia-based firm says that its products are well-suited for pets, among others. “Vertical farming limits land use,” the company said. “Insects don’t need arable land. This means we use far less land than traditional protein production. The products are naturally better for animals: the anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties contained in insect fat fraction has been shown to improve animal digestive tract health.”