Entobel, the Vietnam-based supplier of insect protein feed ingredients, has won the first ever Aquaculture Innovation Challenge.  

According to the jury, Entobel “has a really good business approach, has been proven to be successful in the world already and is part of the race for a sustainable protein supply.\"

The winning team received the $10,000 cash prize and met with investors, both of which will help them scale up their business.

The winner was chosen by the jury team, each of whom selected their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice of innovation that they believed had the greatest business and impact potential.

“I’m very happy, obviously,\" exclaimed Gaetan Crielaard, representative of the Entobel team. \"For four years in Vietnam, I’ve been working on this project… [the team] all worked very hard and will be happy when I come back to the factory and say we won. This will help us to run the pilot for a few more weeks or months, allowing me to focus more on fundraising to build this factory. The plan is quite ambitious. While we want to start with one factory, the goal is to build more, first in South Vietnam, then the North, and then other tropical countries with a focus on Southeast Asia, but [eventually] Africa and South America. We believe that what we have built here is really relevant for tropical countries.”

The challenge was open to Vietnamese and foreign individuals, students, start-ups, project teams, SME and other companies from all types of sectors. It sought participation from anyone addressing current sustainability challenges in the Vietnamese aquaculture sector, including design, demonstration and upscaling.