More than crickets: the future of sustainable food

AgriFutures Australia has released a five-year plan to accelerate the growth of the emerging Australian insect market. The Australian Insect Industry RD&E Plan 2023–2028 will help Australia capitalise on the commercial opportunity of sustainable food.

Insects such as black soldier fly larvae, mealworms and crickets are an efficient and sustainable alternative to traditional protein sources for human food and animal feed, and can also be used as organic fertiliser.

Investment in the Australian insect industry over the last decade has been underpinned by its potential to address global challenges such as food waste, climate volatility and increasing demand for protein.

Building on an initial RD&E plan published in 2020, the new plan will identify five focus themes to address barriers in scaling and improving the Australian industry’s competitive advantage.

The plan was produced as part of AgriFutures’ Emerging Industries Program and developed in consultation with the Insect Protein Association of Australia (IPAA). It included stakeholders such as insect producers, manufacturers, downstream customers, waste management companies, fertiliser companies and researchers.

Duncan Rowland, IPAA Chair, said one of the priorities of the plan was establishing best practice guidelines and standards to shore up credibility and quality of the industry as well as strengthening the industry’s capabilities and capacity.

“Australia is about 10 years behind what is happening in the EU and North American insect industries but by addressing the priorities identified in the plan, we will be able to significantly close that gap,” he said.

Other priorities include efficiencies and optimisation for current systems; opening up new markets, products and use cases; market development; consumer education; and social license to operate.

According to Rowland, one of the greatest opportunities is in the replacement of protein meals in stockfeed.

“Australia imports about 55,000 tonnes of soybean meal every fortnight and we have a huge opportunity there to substitute that out for Australian-grown protein meal,” he said.

Dr Olivia Reynolds, AgriFutures Australia Senior Manager Emerging Industries, said the plan would feed into the activities of the recently formed Emerging Insect Technology Hub (EIT-Hub), a partnership between AgriFutures, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), which will centralise knowledge and engagement around insect farming in Australia and Africa.

“The Australian Insect Industry RD&E Plan together with the African equivalent plan will play a vital role in guiding the direction of the EIT-Hub and its activities,” Reynolds said.

“One of the initial goals of the EIT-Hub is the creation of a gold standard manual for the production and processing of black soldier flies which directly aligns with the first priority in the plan.”

AgriFutures Australia will also invest $2m into an Insect Industry Program of Research over the next five years. An expression of interest to participate in the Program of Research is currently open to all industry and research organisations that wish to be involved. Applications close 29 September 2023.

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