JStories ー As world concern over meals shortages and local weather change intensifies, edible crickets — wealthy in vitamins and environmentally sustainable — are attracting consideration as a possible answer. Nonetheless, in Japan, the place insect-based meals are usually not but broadly accepted, there stay important limitations to adoption. Shopper resistance is robust, and a number of other corporations have been compelled to shut or withdraw from the sector regardless of early enthusiasm.
Vitamin and early inspiration
Crickets are excessive in protein, low in fats, and include important vitamins reminiscent of iron, zinc, and folic acid. Their exoskeleton additionally holds dietary fiber that may soak up and take away ldl cholesterol. In contrast with beef manufacturing, elevating crickets requires 1/2000 the water, 7/100 the feed, and produces just one/25 the greenhouse fuel emissions.
Founder Seiya Ashikari moved to Cambodia in 2019 and now divides his time between there and Tokyo. College colleague Kensuke Ikeda, who joined the enterprise and have become CEO in February 2025, recollects his first expertise elevating crickets throughout a summer time break at college: “It turned out to be surprisingly simple, and the yield was outstanding. That’s once I thought this could possibly be a part of an answer to the meals disaster.”
Lately, a number of Japanese corporations experimented with cricket-based bread and confectionery merchandise. Nonetheless, sturdy client aversion to bugs led to boycotts and, in lots of circumstances, the closure of those companies.
Selecting Cambodia as a manufacturing base
Ecologgie took a distinct method: As a substitute of manufacturing in Japan, it established operations in Cambodia, the place consuming bugs is a part of the native meals tradition. Initially, the corporate tried elevating crickets in a disused nursery faculty in a rural space of Hyogo Prefecture, in western Japan’s Kansai area. However Japan’s seasonal temperature variations made it tough to keep up constant manufacturing with out heating — which might have elevated power use and environmental impression.
Looking for a location with a year-round heat local weather appropriate for cricket farming — and the place Japanese workers might additionally reside comfortably — Ashikari and Ikeda surveyed a number of Southeast Asian international locations. “Cambodia matches the circumstances completely,” says Ikeda.
Constructing partnerships and secure revenue
After transferring to Cambodia, Ashikari started working with worldwide NGOs to survey farmers about their manufacturing prices, revenue, and amenities. Cricket farming was already established as a facet enterprise alongside rice and vegetable cultivation, and the fundamental infrastructure for scaling up was in place. Whereas rice and vegetable farmers sometimes earn revenue twice a yr, crickets may be raised underneath the eaves of a house, with a progress cycle of round 45 days from egg to maturity. This enables as much as eight harvests a yr, offering farmers extra revenue with out interfering with their essential crops.
Nonetheless, when Ecologgie began, Cambodian farmers lacked dependable patrons, that means cricket farming didn’t at all times yield regular earnings. The corporate addressed this by contracting instantly with farmers and buying their complete output, guaranteeing secure revenue and bettering dwelling requirements. Ikeda explains: “Even in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, we continued to purchase 100% of their manufacturing. Farmers had been grateful, and our partnerships expanded from only one family to almost 60. The belief we constructed throughout a tricky financial interval is the muse of at the moment’s operations.”
High quality enchancment by means of feed innovation
To enhance the dietary high quality of its crickets, Ecologgie produces its personal feed by accumulating discarded meals from a Cambodian pizza restaurant and a three way partnership of Japanese snack maker Kameda Seika. That is fortified with extra vitamins and bought at low price to contract farmers, leading to high-quality crickets.
In Japan, the place edible bugs are much less accepted, Ecologgie presently makes use of cricket powder as an ingredient in “Leobait,” a paste-type pet meals for reptiles and amphibians. The product line contains 12 variations tailor-made to completely different pets and is bought by means of pet outlets and on-line retailers, with gross sales steadily growing.
“We plan to increase into feeds for animals like hedgehogs,” says Ikeda. “We’ve additionally began promoting in Taiwan, and intention to enter the Chinese language market.”
Strategy to meals merchandise
The corporate has beforehand collaborated on well being dietary supplements and snack merchandise with soy sauce and miso producers. Nonetheless, Ikeda notes: “Forcing insect-based meals onto Japanese customers, who’ve sturdy resistance, shouldn’t be our function proper now. We deal with sharing correct details about crickets’ dietary advantages, and we provide uncooked supplies to those that wish to use them.”
He provides: “On condition that crickets have lengthy been a part of the weight loss program in Southeast Asia, it wouldn’t be shocking if local weather change makes them extra engaging as a protein supply in areas the place meat and fish manufacturing turns into tough. I consider crickets have nice potential.”
In February 2025, Ecologgie launched a brand new service in Cambodia: well being checks for native corporations. In a rustic the place consciousness of lifestyle-related ailments continues to be low, the service supplies data on prevention, recommendation on bettering each day habits, and vitamin steerage — additionally selling the well being advantages of crickets.
Ikeda additionally sees future alternatives for collaboration: “We will package deal our know-how — from breeding strategies and feed recipes to processing strategies — and share it with corporations in different areas. I’d wish to work with companions in equatorial international locations in Africa and South America, in addition to corporations already working there.”
Translated by Anita De Michele
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