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BISHKEK, June 17 (Reuters) – An entrepreneur started Kyrgyzstan’s first cricket farm with one eye on a lucrative Chinese market just across the border and produces high-protein insect flour and fried cricket pieces.
Adyl Gaparov said his ideas were inspired by online articles on cricket processing.
“Our main business is to produce cricket flour with a high protein content,” Gaparov said. “Our flour contains at least 70% protein and many micro and macro elements.”
Gaparov has about one ton (2,200 pounds) of live crickets on his farm, but he says serious business, such as transportation to China, starts with a cargo of at least five tons. He offers flour for sale at 7,000 bags ($ 82) per pound.
“We’re in talks with a number of companies looking to get large quantities of powder – which we can’t currently produce – to make sports protein bars for athletes and those trying to lose weight, for example,” he says.
Gaparov says that for success, crickets need above all a stable temperature of more than 30 degrees and low humidity.
“In this respect, Kyrgyzstan is ideal for cricket farming. We can open such farms in literally every province and export our products,” he says. “China consumes 30,000 tons of insects a year, but produces only 20,000 tons.”
Despite online guides and guides, Gaparov says he had to learn by trial and error.
“In more than six months, there were three cases where we lost an entire generation overnight,” he says.
While he grows his flocks and collects cricket flour, Gaparov also sells fried insects as a beer snack.
“We add spices and flavors,” he says.
Report by Marlis Myrzakul Uulu Written by Olzhas Auyezov Editor Raissa Kasolowsky
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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