Paula-Lee Pownall from Grubs Up and her Nuffield Scholarship
Is it commercially viable to produce crickets for human food?
It depends…….
The following is snapshot of my 2023 Nuffield Travels including insights into commercial viability to produce crickets for human food.
During 2023 my Nuffield Scholarship took me to countries including Singapore, India, Qatar, Germany, Netherlands, USA, and Canada.
The highlight was speaking to both Aspire Food Group, and Entomo Farms in Canada.
Aspire Food Group is a world class, fully automated cricket production facility, based in London Ontario.
Aspire Food Group won the Hult Prize in 2013, being awarded 1 million US dollars to work towards producing crickets to assist in solving the global food crises. They started with a facility in Texas and have expanded to London Ontario in 2022.
The Canadian Facility is 1.39 Ha in size, fully automated and once it reaches capacity, it is expected to produce 12,000 metric tons of crickets per year.
Aisa and Europe are expected to be the major customers of Aspires crickets, with remaining supply heading to North American petfood companies.
The facility is fully automated using automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), robotics, data collection, and machine learning.
Funding for the 100 million (Aus dollars) facility is broken down to 25% in government grants, 30% Loans, and the remaining 45% in equity.
Aspire Food Group is passionate about a sustainable food source for global demand, using technology.
Entomo Farms was established in 2014 by three brothers. They utilise old poultry barns to produce crickets across 60,000 square feet.
I had the pleasure of spending time with CEO Kelly Hagon and Founder Jarrad Goldin discussing how Covid -19 has impacted their business, collaborations, and developing new opportunities.
Entomo Farms produces crickets for human food, and prior Covid -19 exported to over 15 different countries.
Covid -19 contributed to a shift in consumer demand, as exporting and importing costs increased, ingredient costs also increased.
Businesses such as Grubs Up could no longer afford to consider importing cricket protein from Entomo Farms, as producing value added products such as protein bars was no longer viable.
Entomo Farms witnessed a shift across the globe with demand decreasing, thus the need to find alternative local markets, including the pet food industry.
Cost of production remains the largest barrier when considering entering the pet food industry, and I found this is common across the world.
Entomo Farms believe in collaboration, they work closely with the Canadian Health department, universities and with Aspire Food Group.
Interestingly, Entomo focuses on investment in the manufacturing side of the business, rather than production.
Photo: Lauren Park-Bee Keeper/ Nuffield Scholar, Kelly Hagon Entomo Farms CEO, Jarrod Goldin Co Founder Entomo Farms, Paula Pownall Grubs Up/ Nuffield Scholar
So is it commercially viable to produce crickets, well it depends.
It depends on so many factors, for Grubs Up we remain undecided as the cost of production remains high and there is volatility in the global market.
An example of such volatility is.
The 2019 Eastern Australian bushfires created a shortage of Kangaroo meat being exported to the USA for pet food manufacturing. The shortage of protein was met through cricket protein from Canada. It is important to understand that insect producers were supplying small amounts to the Pet food industry prior to the Kangaroo meat shortage, however it took a gap in the market, before insect meat was accepted at large scale.
My key message through my learnings is:
We collectively need to develop and build markets whilst ensuring industry is proactive, collaborative, transparent, and supported by government.
Storytelling is paramount.
My Travels opened the door to many exceptional agricultural businesses around the world with similar needs regardless of country.
Below are a few of the common themes and learnings, all of which that can apply to insect businesses.
Staff Needs:
Both North and South India had trouble retaining trained staff and had a labour shortage. To overcome this, some businesses offered either free medical or free private education to employee’s children. Staff would work for companies regardless of safety if the business educated their children.
We need to understand what our employee’s needs are. How do we make them feel valued? What does value look like in Australia?
Do one thing well:
When visiting a Dairy farm in North India, we noticed all the cows had state of the art tracking collars. When asked, the farmers said, “If we have cows operating at optimal levels, they will produce more milk”. The more milk that is produced, the more money they will make, then other technology will come later.
It was a very simple principle that really showed just start with doing one thing well.
I think that we often get caught up in thinking we have make the best of every part of our production, all at the same time.
What does “doing one thing well” look like to you?
Tell your story:
I visited a 26,000-meat chicken production barn in Germany. The farmer wants the consumer to understand what chicken farming looks like. The farmer created a room with a window that directly looks into the barn. People can see the birds being fed, they can see how much room the chickens have, the living conditions etc. The room is also interactive. It has examples of the process from hatching to slaughter, examples of the chicken feed, and it even has a vending machine where you can purchase fresh chicken and eggs. The room is monitored, and data is collected.
View from the room, and interactive examples of equipment used.
The farmer showcased the faming methods, showcased the brand and in return, increased the customer base. The farmer believes in “Telling your story”, or someone else will.
How can you tell your story with the resources you have?
Maybe look out of the box, the above farmer got funding through a tourist grant, all he had to provide was an electric recharge station point.
Small by Small, a Soldier Fly Farm in Germany is also story telling extremely well. They are using the product packaging to sell the product, including QR codes for further information.
Image: Small By Small packaging
Nuffield Scholarship:
A Nuffield Scholarship is a $40,000 bursary to travel for 15 weeks across the world connecting with likeminded people.
Applications are open until the 31st of May 2024
More information can be found at https://www.nuffield.com.au/