3.1 Diversity and Abundance of Edible Insects in Africa

MAP 3.1 Diversity and Abundance of Edible Insects in Africa

Insect diversity Aranea Coleoptera Dictyoptera Diptera Ephemeroptera Heteroptera Homoptera Hymenoptera Isoptera Lepidoptera Odonata Orthoptera Abundance <10 25 45 65 85 100 120 140 160 180

IBRD 46080 | JULY 2021

Source: Kelemu et al. 2015.

Insect farming requires little space, unlike other animal production systems. Small-scale insect farms can be housed in homes or small shelters. In Thailand, a cricket powder facility that processed 100 kilograms (kg) of cricket powder per day was only about 60 square meters and required only two workers to operate. Large- and medium-scale insect farming operations require larger warehouse-like facilities. Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) production facilities are generally located in peri-urban areas, often in industrial parks, close to sources of organic municipal waste, which is BSFL’s primary feeding substrate.

Insects have been reared for food, feed, and textile fiber throughout human history. Two insect species in particular have a long history of domestication:

the honeybee (Apis mellifera) and several closely related species, and the silkworm (Bombyx mori) and a few related moth species (like Samia ricini). In the United States, honeybee pollination has an estimated economic value of more than US$20 billion (Degrandi-Hoffman et al. 2019). The rearing of sterile pest insects, such as fruit flies, for integrated pest control is another wellestablished mass production application (IAEA 2020). In more recent history, simple insect production systems, driven by the need for perennially available animal feed, have been reported since at least the 1960s. Scientific literature shows that people have experimented with domesticating the housefly and black soldier fly (BSF) at small scales for decades and reared mealworms and crickets as live feed for pet animals and zoo reptiles in Western countries (Makkar et al. 2014).

Growing Global Industry

Two surveys that were undertaken for this report shed some light on the scope of insect farming in Africa, but there is still much to be learned. The country-level survey reveals that insect farming occurs in 10 of the 13 surveyed countries on different scales. The country-level survey identified 849 insect farms of various sizes in those 10 countries. However, according to the surveyors, the total number of farms is closer to 1,800. The actual number of insect farms in these countries is unknown beyond these estimates. There are no data on the number of farms in all 54 African countries. The farm-level survey identified 16 farmed or semi-farmed insect species in the 10 countries with insect farming. Most of the farms started after 2010, which shows that insect farming is relatively new in Africa, although some insect farms in Madagascar date back 50 years. Silkworm farming is the oldest form of insect farming in Africa.

Insect farming is a rapidly growing industry. Each year, the number of new entrants, companies, and initiatives increases. The edible insect industry comprises everyone from small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs to large international companies. Barclays Investment Bank estimates that the market for insects as food and animal feed will be worth up to US$8 billion by 2030, a 24 percent CAGR over the decade (MarketWatch 2019). Analysts estimate that the global insect feed market size will increase from US$621.8 million in 2018 to US$1,011.5 million in 2025, a 7.3 percent CAGR (360 Market Updates 2019). The world’s compound feed production, or animal feed that is blended from various raw materials, is estimated at over 1 billion tons annually (IFIF 2019). According to the International Feed Industry Federation, global commercial feed manufacturing generates more than US$400 billion in total annual revenue (IFIF 2019). Korea’s insect market2 was valued at ₩264.8 billion (US$220 million) in 2018 and was anticipated to reach ₩361.6 billion (US$290 million) in 2020. Korea’s combined sales from insects were ₩37.5 billion (US$31.4 million) in 2018, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier (RDA 2020b). The Thai and Chinese edible insect market demands are projected to