Prodigy Textiles, the Vietnamese subsidiary of Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, Inc. the leading developer of spider silk based fibers, recently completed the first cycle of silk moth mating and egg production scale-up, at the Quang Nam factory.
The Prodigy Textiles operations team finished removing the cocoons from mounting frames on November 6, 2019 and silk moths began emerging by November 9th. The breeding of the emerged moths is complete, with the specialized silkworm eggs now in incubation and are expected to emerge shortly. Each female silk moth lays upwards of 200-500 eggs and, as previously announced, all of them emerged silk moths were dedicated to breeding stock expansion to rapidly scale up the company’s silk production capacity.
In the coming weeks, the company expects to hatch and rear this second round of silkworms, then harvest the resulting cocoons for production of the first recombinant spider silk threads manufactured in Vietnam. The Company will contract with a nearby reeling facility to convert the cocoons into finished silk yarn, which has already been committed to a textile manufacture for further fabric and product development.
The company plans to continue to expand its throughput, over the next several quarters, as it builds up its capacity, expand operations, and prepares to ship materials to its collaborators and potential customers.