Processed food products from crickets are now becoming a trend. Some of its downstream products produced abroad are chips, soy sauce, ramen, and beer. This trend can be seen from the export activity of crickets to countries in Asia, such as Thailand, Japan, South Korea. In addition, there are exports to the United States. "The trend so far is that exports of feed and food ingredients from crickets in 2021 will be recorded at 768 kilograms (kg) with a value of IDR 203 million. This year as of October, the export was only 462 kg. However, the value has increased to Rp 7 billion," said Wisnu Wasisa Putra, Head of the Center for Animal Quarantine and Animal Biosafety, Agricultural Quarantine Agency, Ministry of Agriculture, on the sidelines of the Webinar Paragraph Forum - Discussing the Export Potential of Cricket Flour for Food, Monday (31/10). ).
However, he acknowledged that crickets and their derivative products, such as cricket flour, are still classified as animal feed commodities. So there is no export regulation that covers it. Cricket flour, said Vishnu, belongs to the flour group of animal origin. "According to our records, what has been exported so far is still feed and feed ingredients. For cricket flour as food, flour comes from animals," said Wisnu. In the future, Wisnu said, the government will try to complete the regulations regarding this matter. "The existence of this potential (export of crickets as food) will be a strengthening in the future. We will perfect the regulations so that they are pushed to food,” he said. On the same occasion, CEO of Sugeng Jaya Farm, Koes Hendra Agus Setiawan said that he would not work on the export market yet. The local market is still considered promising to be explored. “This local market is still wide open. But with this webinar, we are given the opportunity to stay in touch with the government, especially Barantan regarding export licensing or regulations," said Koes Hendra.
