Circular agriculture for olive pomace recycling: LIVIN farms joins the EU-Funded OLIFECycle Project

How black soldier fly farming turns olive oil byproducts into sustainable protein, oil and organic fertilizer.

LIVIN farms is proud to be part of the groundbreaking OLIFECycle project, funded by the European Commission through the LIFE Programme for Environment and Climate Action, together with our partners Dapibus and inèdit, . This ambitious €7.3 million initiative tackles one of the Mediterranean’s most pressing environmental challenges: the sustainable management of olive pomace, the main byproduct of olive oil production. The OLIFECycle project transforms this byproduct into high-quality proteins, oil, and organic fertilizer through black soldier fly (BSF) farming.

Closing the loop: a circular approach to olive pomace

Olive pomace is produced in vast quantities every year and presents a serious environmental issue due to its high organic content and rapid fermentation. OLIFECycle offers a sustainable circular solution, where BSF larvae digest the pomace and convert it into valuable resources:

• High-quality protein meal rich in essential amino acids for animal feed

• Nutrient-rich fat, including lauric acid, ideal for feed applications

• Organic fertilizer (frass) enriched with NPK, micronutrients, and chitin, which improves soil health, strengthens plant immunity, and promotes sustainable growth

Through this innovative biotransformation process, OLIFECycle not only eliminates waste but also achieves more than 60% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, cuts water use by half, and increases operational profitability by over 25% compared to conventional treatment methods.

Scaling sustainability

The OLIFECycle biotransformation center, located in Abrera, Spain, is the first industrial plant designed to process over 10,000 tons of olive pomace annually, with plans to scale up to 100,000 tons by 2027. By 2035, the project aims to replicate this model across five plants, processing a total of 408,000 tons per year. This marks a major step toward creating a circular, sustainable, and profitable agri-food system, where organic waste becomes a resource instead of a burden.

Our role at LIVIN farms

At LIVIN farms, we are thrilled to contribute our expertise in insect farming technology and process optimization to help achieve OLIFECycle’s ambitious goals. Our commitment to circular bioeconomy solutions perfectly aligns with the project’s vision of using nature’s most efficient upcyclers to close resource loops and reduce environmental impact.

Project participants

Coordinator: Dapibus

Contact: info@dapibus.eco

Participants:

• LIVIN farms

• inèdit

Funding and acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Programme for Environment and Climate Action.