Edible insects: cricket farming and processing as an emerging market

Abstract

This article provides information on recent trends in cricket farming and processing in Asian and Western countries. Whilst eating insects collected from the wild has long been a common practice in many countries, farming and transforming insects into a food ingredient for packaged products is a new development. Particularly in North America and Europe, some new, small companies are transforming cricket (and mealworm) powder into packaged food (energy bars, pasta, and chips among the examples). Within this article, two contrasting farming systems are principally considered. On one hand is the Thai cricket farming model, based on micro-farms, in which the small farmers do not make the flour; this task instead being handled by specialised businesses. On the other hand, is the western farming model, in which farms are large, and the flour is produced by the very same factory-farm. Examples of this model are found in the Netherlands (Protifarm) and Canada (Entomofarm). Since insect powders (flour) in packaged foods represent a new category of food product, little market data and/or surveys are available. The products are often sold on small online shops, within the context of an informal business operations. As a consequence, some of the information in this article comes from informal sources or the direct experience of the author.