In his workshop on the outskirts of Havana, Yodermis Díaz Hernández estimates that he will earn 450,000 pesos from this business this year.
14ymedio, Havana, 15 July 2025 (delayed translation) — Last year, the physician Yodermis Díaz Hernández earned 157,500 pesos raising black soldier flies, whose larvae can be used as animal feed for cats, dogs, pigs, and chickens. He earned more than double what he earned annually practicing medicine on the island for 20 years.
Díaz told the Associated Press News that a friend gave him the idea in 2019. This year, he hopes to surpass his production and reach a ton, which would earn him 450,000 pesos. “We turn that garbage into protein, into gold for the animals, and the waste into fertilizer,” the retired doctor says. “We also help the environment.”
The fly incubation is carried out in a workshop on the outskirts of Havana, where Díaz made most of the equipment and tools.
“Over the past decade, initiatives in France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and other countries have invested in the cultivation of black soldier flies. Ferocious waste eaters, the larvae consume urban and agricultural biological waste, forming masses of protein-rich, squiggly larvae that can be processed for use in animal and pet food.”
At the La Candelaria farm in Ciego de Ávila, the cultivation and use of a native insect was announced. “The rainy days in mid-2023 were enough: more than a thousand larvae emerged to the surface of the sancocho [food waste] tanks” there, reported the newspaper Invasor.
The project is led by Miguel Ángel Iparraguirre Cruz, PhD in biological sciences. He stated that in the larval stage, black soldier flies have a high protein content, ranging between 40 and 60%. “To the point that it has been proven that they replace all the components of currently known feeds,” the scientist stated.
As part of his research, he has also found that “the larva is capable of eliminating harmful microorganisms and bacteria such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli .”
Last year, producer Alexander Ramírez Marrero highlighted the benefits of black soldier flies in the official Granma newspaper as “a biological control agent and an ally in reducing different types of waste, since they feed on them.” He also stated that “they could also feed on the excrement of cattle, poultry, pigs, and fish.”
In La Candelaria, for now, efforts are focused on the intensive cultivation of the fly, which feeds on the mini-industry’s own waste, spoiled fruit, and some cafeteria waste.
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