Startup aims high with cricket snacks

Nguyen Hong Ngoc Bich, Rec Rec’s co-founder, says: “Snacks have always been considered unhealthy. This is an opportunity for us to create a new kind of healthy snacks.”

Instead of making snacks from potato, rice flour or cornstarch, Bich and her associates pooled money to make them from crickets.

In 2017, after Bich co-founded CricketOne and produced and exported protein made from crickets to 20 countries, she approached many local companies, but since insects were not popular in Vietnam they did not buy.

After seeing a surge in demand for raw crickets in North America and Europe for making snacks in the last two years, she decided CricketOne would produce its own snacks.

In September 2022 the company tied up with FoodMap, an e-commerce platform specializing in agricultural products, to set up Rec Rec.

Using whole crickets and no vegetable oil, a pack of Rec Rec provides 14-15 grams of protein, equivalent to one serving of protein in an adult’s meal, besides vitamins and minerals, Bich’s team said.

They season the insects with wasabi, salted egg or cheese.

CricketOne’s plant has a capacity of 100,000 packs per week.

Production began in February 2023, and more than 10,000 packs were sold through online channels and social networks right in the first month.

It is also available on the shelves of Fine Life, BRG and Nam An stores and is finding its way into Aeon supermarkets and Circle K convenience stores.

Mai Thanh Thai, a manager at FoodMap, said the snack is favored by young consumers, who often have an open mind and a modern lifestyle.

According to retailers, the product is targeted at people who “eat clean” (plant-based, whole grains, lean protein), follow a keto (less carbohydrates, more good fats) diet and look for snacks while exercising, but the brand is still not widely known.

“Shoppers are still afraid [of eating crickets],” Finelife supermarket chain said.

Bich said 30% of people consume the cricket snack, 20% are neutral and 50% refuse to touch it.

“Our mission is to serve the 30%, launch new products to convert the 20% and let the market gradually convert the 50%.”

In the next six months she plans to make products with new packaging and flavors such as barbeque, lemongrass and chili.

After that Rec Rec will make snacks from powdered cricket instead of dried whole cricket.

German online data platform Statista estimates the Vietnamese snack market to be worth US$5.81 billion now, and expects it to grow at 8.93% annually over the next five years to reach $8.91 billion by 2028.

FoodMap is optimistic that demand for healthy eating will increase, helping increase Rec Rec’s sales.

Thai said: “I expect consumption of cricket products and other sustainable protein alternatives to become very popular in 4-5 years.”

In March Rec Rec raised $10,000 on U.S. fund-raising platform Indiegogo.

The funding round wrapped up within days with money pouring from investors in five countries including the U.S., Singapore and Australia.

The future of snacks from cricket is unpredictable just like in Thailand. Thailand has more than 20,000 farms that supply 700 tons of crickets a year.

Cricket Lab, a cricket-based food company in Chiang Mai that has been in the market since 2018, told the Bangkok Post that high prices, unfavorable consumer perceptions and fear of insects remain key challenges.