As it prepares to ramp up production at the world’s largest edible cricket production facility in London, Ontario, Aspire Food Group is already in talks to open a second site.
According to a recent interview, Aspire Food Group cofounder Mohammed Ashour said he’s talking to interested investors and customers about a second facility.
“We have significant contractual commitments for the majority of our production and expect 100% will be sold within the year,” said Ashour.
“We’re already in discussions with some of our customers and investors about site selection for a second commercial facility.”
Aspire Food Group hopes to be on the cutting edge of alternative protein production. Although it’s London facility will be exclusively using cricket flour to produce pet food, the company is interested in branching out into producing crickets for human consumption.
“Crickets are the insects with the most traction from a consumer standpoint and they’re also lower in fat than mealworms or black soldier fly larvae, so you don’t have to de-fat them and the powder has a 24-month stable shelf life,” explained Ashour.
“On the human food side, the low hanging fruit is in Asia and parts of Europe, but for petfood we’re seeing excitement across the board.”
Aspire Food Group hopes that its London factory will be at 100% production capacity in early 2024.
“We have significant contractual commitments for the majority of our production and expect 100% will be sold within the year,” said Ashour.
Proponents of alternative proteins like crickets include the World Economic Forum, which has argued that they can help humanity shift towards a more sustainable future by offsetting emissions produced by meat products.
As exclusively reported by True North, the City of Toronto recently endorsed a mentorship program featuring a specialist in “urban insect farms” to guide young environmental entrepreneurs.
“(Her speciality is in) precision agriculture for urban insect farms using AI-enabled technology to sustainably produce nutritious alternative protein foods, while reducing food miles and reusing waste heat from facilities to offset GHG emissions,” the City of Toronto said.
