FairGene joint venture starts dedicated BSF egg production

NRGene Canada and Fairville Farming Co. have launched FairGene, a joint venture operating a dedicated black soldier fly (BSF) egg production facility in Bassano, Alberta. Egg production started in the summer, and the site is designed to supply BSF producers worldwide with eggs bred from NRGene Canada's MaxBSF genetics, which are currently available only through FairGene.

Egg supply is the upstream bottleneck of the insect protein chain. Producers of protein meal, oil and frass depend on a uniform starting population, and variable egg quality limits both yield and planning reliability. According to NRGene Canada, MaxBSF lines deliver higher larval density and weight and a shorter time to harvest than industry-standard lines, yielding up to 2.1 times the output within the same infrastructure.

The company has also demonstrated a neonate delivery system that ships one-day-old larvae in containers holding up to one million animals, with a two-week shelf life from hatching and capacity due to reach 2.5 million per container by the end of 2026. It removes the need for on-site egg incubation at the producer.

Bassano is the second production site for NRGene Canada, which is based in Saskatoon and is a subsidiary of the Israeli genomics company NRGene Technologies (TASE: NRGN). When the Alberta plant was announced in late 2025, the company put its capacity at 20 times that of its Saskatoon operation and scheduled start-up for early 2026. Fairville Farming Co., an agricultural business in Bassano, contributes production infrastructure and farming experience. The partners are also exploring a BSF rearing facility to serve as a demonstration centre for a hub-and-spoke model.

For pet food buyers the relevant point is availability in volume: insect protein has established itself in premium and hypoallergenic ranges, and a stable, genetically uniform egg supply is what allows a recipe to scale. NRGene Canada is active in the category itself, having launched MaxBites, a treat made from 100 per cent dried BSF larvae, in Canada in March, with a US roll-out planned for the second half of 2026. The company states that MaxBSF was developed by conventional crossbreeding, without GMO, gene editing or CRISPR.