Appreciate the updates. Interesting to see Bolt is back in the spider silk business, sort of. I don’t think they will be competing with KBLB, though.
Spiber certainly knows how to keep the lights on and the money flowing. Can’t dismiss them as a competitor at this time.
Meanwhile, looking over the 2023 PRs and Letters to Shareholders from KBLB, the PR in January mentioned shipment of two parent lines for a double-hybrid system. Given the lack of any apparent production from that system, it looks like a complete bust.
KBLB indicated they might have their quad-hybrid system as early as Q3. Obviously nothing was announced in Q3, so we are waiting until Q4. Given the information you shared earlier about silkworm production in northern Vietnam, I suspect we have missed any chance of producing in Vietnam this year and will have to wait until the February/March 2024 time frame as the earliest the quad-hybrid model could be started.
I’m hopeful that Prodigy might be able to breed some of the parent lines even during the off-season. That may be part of the reason for the shakeup there. If so, the Feb/March crop might be of actual silkworm eggs. Otherwise, KBLB could end up with a generation or two of expanding the breeding lines before production could start.
These assumptions produce the following projections:
Next silk, earliest time: Early April 2024
Next silk, latest time: Early August 2024
These are all predicated on happiness and sunshine, such as the fact that the quad hybrid lines all do quite well in Vietnam regardless of the season.