Tokyo Would you like cricket ice cream, pickled bee larvae or silkworm tea? What may seem like a test of courage in Europe is developing into a market in Japan that is even becoming interesting for venture capital funds: insects as food. The start-up investors Anri and Samurai Incubator have just invested in the young company Morus. This wants to produce protein from silkworms on an industrial scale.
“Try it,” says founder Ryo Sato in a small meeting room in Tokyo, holding out a sachet of green caterpillar flour. “It tastes a bit like green matcha tea.” The insects that once made Japan the world’s largest producer of silk gorge themselves on the leaves of the mulberry tree before they pupate.
But as small as the protein sample is so far, the potential that Sato expects is great. With the growing world population and climate change, the world is facing a protein crisis, says the young entrepreneur. Meat production consumes large amounts of water and feed and produces – especially in the case of cattle – significant emissions of climate-damaging exhaust gases.
According to the United Nations, a total of 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock farming. “Insects are a contribution to solving these problems,” says founder Sato. He is not alone in this. In France, the start-up Ynsect began building the world’s largest mealworm protein factory to date in 2020.
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And for the United Nations, this is just the beginning. As early as 2013, their Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hailed insects as an alternative source of “food and fodder.” According to the study, mealworms produce only a third of the greenhouse gas emissions from chicken farming and a tenth of those from cattle for a kilogram of protein.
University know-how is seldom put to practical use
With Sato, however, the idea of improving the culinary world arose from a different vision. “I want to help bring Japan back to the forefront of innovative nations,” explains the founder. The graduate of the elite Tokyo University gave up his career at the global retail giant Itochu.
The business idea came to him while he was working as a company scout at the Investor Samurai Incubator. There he saw that the know-how of Japanese universities rarely led to practical application in business. In silkworms he found a niche that gives the academic heritage of traditional silkworm producers Japan a chance to be marketed globally.
After long discussions, he convinced one of the leading experts on the animals, Professor Kunihiro Shiomi from Shinshu University, to jointly develop the most efficient production method for protein extraction. Production is scheduled to start in five years at the latest, first in Japan and then in Southeast Asia and Europe.
In contrast to Morus founder Sato, Jun Nakamura already earns money with edible insects. In 2017, the founder of the online wholesaler RON founded the Bugsfarm brand, which now sells more than 200 insect products from Japan and around the world in its online shop. And like Sato, he only got the taste for insects via detours.
He used to publish a web medium for fitness studios, says Nakamura. He met with great interest in dietary supplements among bodybuilders.
During his research, he came across Japan’s long tradition of eating insects, the FAO report and the realization that the animals are already part of the menu for two billion people. “Out of pure curiosity, I then started to develop and sell products,” says Nakamura – with success.
Japan offers more opportunities for experimentation
Now he sees Japan in a good position to hold its own against growing global competition. In Europe, due to strict regulations, only half a dozen species of insects can be processed, while in Japan many, some with a long tradition. “And we can try a lot of new things because the regulations are looser here,” says Nakamura. The most viewed post on his cooking channel on YouTube is gokiburi tempura, fried cockroaches in batter.
However, Japan’s pioneers are counting on patience when it comes to conquering world markets. Start-up founder Sato says he believes the market will grow strongly over the next 20 years. “For climate protection reasons, we have to separate our protein sources from meat production.”
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