A Vietnamese startup's ambition to make snacks from crickets

Pouring more than a billion VND into producing cricket snacks and selling more than 10,000 packages in the first month, Rec Rec dreams of popularizing insect food to Vietnamese people, but it is not easy.

"Snacks are always 'badly' labeled as unhealthy and lacking in nutrition. This is an opportunity for us to create a new branch of healthy snacks," said Nguyen Hong Ngoc Bich (Bicky Nguyen), Co-founder of Rec Rec.

The snack market in Vietnam is worth about $5.81 billion, according to online data platform Statista (Germany). They hope to gain a share of this market thanks to people who like to eat healthy snacks. Instead of using starch, Ngoc Bich and like-minded people pooled money to produce snacks from cricket meat.

Although not a "rookie" in the cricket industry, Bich's ambition is still not easy to achieve. She is the Co-founder and Business Development Director of CricketOne - a producer and wholesale exporter of cricket protein to 20 markets. Established in 2017, this company is the second unit in the world to receive a novel food certification from the European Commission, allowing the company to sell its products throughout the EU.

Although the company is famous abroad, its name is unfamiliar to Vietnamese people. During the period 2016-2018, they sought opportunities in the domestic market but failed. The biggest obstacle is that using insects as food is not popular. "We approached many food companies to introduce it but it was very difficult to accept," she said.

Not giving up on the idea of selling cricket meat to Vietnamese people, the motivation arose when the export of whole crickets for snacking in North America and Europe increased sharply in the past 2 years. Believing that this was the right time to act, Bich could not knock on the doors of food companies like before. "There must be a bolder direction," she told herself.

Nguyen Hong Ngoc Bich (Bicky Nguyen), Co-founder of Rec Rec. Photo provided by character

So they decided to produce cricket snacks themselves. For distribution, they partnered with the agricultural e-commerce platform FoodMap from September 2022. The two sides agreed to contribute one billion VND, 50-50 to establish Rec Rec. They also contributed personnel for phases 1 and 2 to work directly with the project's independent personnel team.

Initially, the founding team planned to go in the direction of specialty products. But after doing some research, they chose to go straight to the mass snack market. "We decided to do it systematically from quality standards, packaging, and flavor so that we could put it on supermarket shelves along with existing snack lines," Bich said.

When they started, Bich said, they realized how difficult it was. The most difficult part was researching and developing the complete product, from flavor to appearance. To find the segment, the situations in which the product was used, the pricing policy and identification, they conducted many rounds of market research with many different customer groups and ages.

As a result, they realized that snacking is a culture, not simply eating to satisfy hunger. "People can and want to snack at all times, whether full or not, sad or happy, alone or with others," Bich said.

However, snacks in Vietnam are mainly made from starch such as potatoes, wheat flour, rice flour, corn flour. The differences between brands only revolve around changes in shape, texture and seasoning. The common weakness is that they are often labeled as "poor in nutrition".

Using whole crickets and no vegetable oil, Bich's team said each Rec Rec packet provides 14-15 grams of protein, equivalent to one serving of protein for an adult per meal, along with vitamins and minerals. To make it easier to eat, they shake the crickets through three flavors: Wasabi, salted egg and cheese.

The snack is produced at CricketOne's factory, utilizing existing facilities and raw materials, with a maximum capacity of 100,000 bags per week. Currently, CricketOne produces 45 tons of input per month, which will increase to 150 tons by July.

Launched in February 2023, more than 10,000 cricket snack packs were sold through online channels and social media. They are currently available on the shelves of offline stores of Fine Life, BRG, Nam An and have found their way into Aeon, Kohnan, and Circle K.

FoodMap representative Mai Thanh Thai said that this is a new product but has been widely accepted by young consumers with open minds and modern lifestyles. "This is demonstrated by the fact that the product is currently selling well in convenience stores, supermarkets and online channels," he said.

Some retailers are also starting to see the effect. BRG said they have high expectations for this unique product with beautiful packaging, making consumers curious.

However, besides conquering the curious, popularizing it to the general public is still not simple, due to unfamiliarity with eating insects. "Housewives are still afraid and have not experienced much," said a representative of the Finelife chain.

According to retailers, the product is suitable for people who eat "clean" (prioritize plants, grains, lean protein), "keto" (eat low carbohydrates and high in good fats) or need a snack when exercising but the brand is not well known. Even at the counter, the packaging size is smaller than other snack brands, so it is difficult to see.

Whole dried cricket snacks are covered in a snack cake for promotion. Photo provided by the character

Surveying the reactions, Ngoc Bich said that 30% of consumers welcomed and used the product, 20% were neutral, and 50% refused to use it. "With this result, our task is to serve the 30% group, launch new products to conquer the 20% group, and let the market gradually conquer the 50% group," she suggested.

According to the plan, in the next 6 months, she will launch new packaging sizes, adding flavors such as barbeque, lemongrass chili, and original. After that, they will make snacks from cricket protein powder. The startup's debut product is whole dried cricket snacks, which Bich calls the "hardcore" (difficult). Therefore, if customers accept it, products from cricket protein will have a higher chance of winning the battle.

"Rec Rec should have a tasting program and product consultation emphasizing unique features so that customers can easily grasp information and access products faster," BRG representative suggested.

Statista predicts that the snack market in Vietnam will grow 8.93% annually over the next five years, reaching a size of 8.91 billion USD by 2028. FoodMap is optimistic that the demand for healthy eating is increasing, leading to a high rate of return to buy cricket snacks. "I expect that in just about 4-5 years, the consumption of products made from crickets or other sustainable alternative proteins will become very popular," said Thanh Thai.

The journey to conquer the domestic market has just begun, but this startup has proactively set its sights on the international market. To test the response, in March they called for $10,000 in crowdfunding on the US platform Indiegogo. The fundraising round quickly ended after 3 days with money poured in from users in 5 countries including the US, Singapore, and Australia.

The future of the cricket snack model in Vietnam remains uncertain. But looking at neighboring and pioneering markets like Thailand, the challenge is not small. This Southeast Asian country has more than 20,000 cricket farms, supplying more than 700 tons per year.

Cricket Lab, a cricket food company in Chiang Mai that entered the market in 2018, told the Bangkok Post that high prices and entrenched consumer perceptions remain the main challenges to expanding the market.

“People buy these products because they’re made from crickets, but they don’t want to imagine the insects running around in the wild,” says Radek Husek, Cricket Lab’s marketing director.

According to FoodNavigator-Asia magazine, Thailand and Vietnam are considered two markets familiar with insect food in Southeast Asia, but to make insects a major food group along with poultry and livestock meat will be a big challenge. Co-director of cricket food company Cric-Co Nuttathida Tantianon understands this, so he chose to make snacks from cricket protein, instead of starting with whole crickets like Rec Rec.

Vnexpress.net