Investors are drawn to the idea of insect protein, however, and the report notes that the availability of capital to the sector is increasing year on year. Jong and Nikolik reported that InnovaFeed has partnered with Cargill for salmon and shrimp feed and announced a US manufacturing facility through a partnership with ADM.
HUMAN FOOD OPTIONS
Yes, there is also an “edible insect industry” for humans. A report from investment bank Barclays last year forecast the deal could be worth $ 8 billion by 2030. In 2019, the edible insect market was already close to $ 1 billion worldwide.
While most marketers admit that convincing Americans to eat bugs is difficult, it’s not uncommon in other parts of the world.
For example, the United Nations has actually been promoting human consumption of insects as part of a daily diet since 2013. A report published by their Food and Agriculture Organization found that there are 1,900 edible insect species on earth that are predicted to have a world population of around 9 billion by 2050, with current food production almost doubling. This is where the beetles come in.
According to this 2013 FAO report, the most commonly consumed insects worldwide were: beetles (31%), caterpillars (18%), bees / wasps / ants (14%), locusts / grasshoppers / crickets (13%), cicadas / cicadas / Planthoppers / scale insects / real beetles (10%), termites (3%), dragonflies (3%) and flies (2%).
Fly sandwich someone?
Victoria Myers can be reached at vicki.myers@dtn.com
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