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A32 FEATURE
Tuesday 5 November 2019
Thai entrepreneur pushing insects as the snack of the future

By JERRY HARMER there are people who are
TASSANEE VEJPONGSA scared of them, people
Associated Press who eat them and people
BANGKOK (AP) — They who don't. But to be where
are sold in bags like salt- we are today, with people
ed peanuts, or tubes like knowing and accepting
stacked potato chips, but our HiSo brand, that's what
these crunchy morsels on I'd call a success."
the shelves of Thai conve- Until recently, demand for
nience stores and super- edible bugs was mainly in
markets stand apart from parts of Asia, Africa and
the snack food crowd. South America.
The bugs — baked, not But HiSo's emergence
fried — could be the next comes amid growing glob-
big thing in tasty treats. al interest in insects as a
Rural Thais have long eaten food source.
bugs as part of their diet. They don't need a lot of
In big cities, street vendors space, don't need a lot
catering to migrant work- of feed and don't leave a
ers sell cooked insects that large carbon footprint. And
under most circumstances in return, as the U.N. Food
would cause foreign tour- and Agriculture Organiza-
ists to whip out a can of tion points out, they offer
bug spray. In this Oct. 2, 2019, photo, a tourist picks up a pack of crickets named HiSo snacks at a supermar- substantial nutritional ben-
The idea to package them ket in Bangkok, Thailand. efits for livestock and for
like potato chips came Associated Press humans.
to entrepreneur Thatnat becue and tom yam fla- black crickets. ry every month. Revenue is "They have an incredibly
Chanthatham when a story vors, and can be found "Even though I'm a regular steady at around $100,000 high content of protein,
on the news caught his at- in Thailand's ubiquitous when it comes to eating per month, but overheads but also minerals and also
tention. 7-Eleven shops and in a bugs, I still felt like their eyes are high. While he raises his vitamin B12," said the FAO's
"I heard on the TV news major supermarket chain. were staring at me ... Then, own crickets, he hasn't yet Katinka de Balogh. "The nu-
that the U.N. said insects Crickets are priced at 25 after we ate them, their found a way to produce tritional value of insects has
were an alternative source baht (83 cents) for a bag; legs and wings poked out enough silkworms and not been recognized in the
of protein for the future . so at the high end, a tube of and got stuck in our teeth bamboo worms to the re- past and I think, nowadays,
I thought that Thais eat a bamboo worms costs 160 and gums," he said, laugh- quired standard, so he has we are finding that there is
lot of insects already and baht ($5.29). ing. to buy them from indepen- a huge potential."
can get them as street HiSo has established itself in "I thought, should we go dent suppliers. Will HiSo's packaging and
food. Has anyone put them the snack market, but there ahead? I talked to the Still, four years after the marketing be a game-
in a bag?" the 46-year-old was plenty of trial-and-error team and they said please metamorphosis of HiSo changer, helping make
told The Associated Press. involved, Thatnat said, such shelve this one, so I did." from idea to industry, That- insects the food of the fu-
"If not, how can we do it? as when they were consid- Two tons of insects pass nat is a satisfied man. ture?
What sort of flavors?" ering whether to sell large, through his Bangkok facto- "When it comes to bugs, Thatnat said his products
His supply chain begins at are popular with Asian tour-
the Smile cricket farm in ists, especially the Chinese,
Ratchaburi province, 100 so his next goal is to export
kilometers (60 miles) west them. But so far, he's hit a
of Bangkok. In one breed- brick wall, and blames a
ing room alone, more than morass of unclear regula-
a million of the chirping in- tions.
sects are being raised on "There needs to be an
a 45-day cycle from egg agreement between gov-
to adult to harvest. Some ernments. All you really get
of the products are baked is advice on bugs as a food
here, others at the next source," he says. "In the
stop, a factory in Bangkok, end, these insects can't re-
where they are packaged ally go between countries
and then trucked to retail yet. That's one of the things
outlets. stopping us from obtaining
Small crickets are one of our goal."
the best sellers in the range Even in Thailand, some
of insect convenience can't stomach the thought
snacks sold under the HiSo of crunchy crickets or origi-
brand — that's Thai slang nal flavor bamboo worms.
for "high society." Many passers-by kept walk-
HiSo snacks unabashedly ing when recently offered
proclaim what they are: samples in the street, or flat
the bamboo worms look out turned down a taste,
like bamboo worms; the though two office workers
crickets look like crickets. who tried them said they
The line also includes crispy were fine.
silkworms. In this Oct. 3, 2019, photo, employees sort out crickets for size at Smile cricket farm at Ratchaburi "If I see them, I'll buy them,"
They come in original, bar- province, southwest of Bangkok, Thailand. Associated Press said Anuwat Suetrong.q