Roi Et rice farmer Sawai Promkot, 56, was all ears when he heard his neighbours had started earning an extra income from selling field crickets, three years ago.
Crickets on paper egg trays in an aluminium trolley
This inspired Sawai to do the same, “I thought it would be better than growing rice just once a year,” he said.
He visited a cricket farm in the nearby province of Maha Sarakham; one of the largest sources of cricket farms in Thailand.
“I paid about 5,000 baht for the start-up of my new business, including cricket eggs and equipment,” he said.
Sawai Promkot.
Sawai puts the cricket eggs in plastic bowls, fills them with soil and places them on a flatbed trolley with aluminium sides. Every 10-15 days, when a batch of cricket eggs hatch, Sawai removes the bowls and replaces them with paper egg trays. He stacks up the trays in two rows, up to around two-thirds the height of the trolley. The crickets automatically use the trays as shelter and Sawai leaves trays of food and water in the centre.
“The insects grow very quickly. I feed them crushed chicken feed day and night, and it takes about a month for the nymphs to grow to a size that is edible,” he said.
When the crickets are ready to be eaten, he loads the trolley into his pickup truck and, along with his daughter, travels around Roi Et and other nearby provinces to set up temporary stalls at weekend markets and temple fairs.
The stall is very simple: a table, gas stove, pan and, of course, the crickets, which Sawai puts at the front of the stall to attract potential customers. The crickets do not fly away, despite Sawai not covering the trolley.
“Their wings are not strong enough. They are also too fat to fly,” he said. To ensure that the crickets do not climb to the top of the trolley, Sawai puts cellophane around the sides to make them slippery.
The crickets are then fried and sold to customers. Often his daughter adds rosdee (seasoning powder) to the fried crickets. A plate-full of crickets is sold for 20 baht.
On a typical day, Sawai can sell an entire trolley of crickets or about 30kg. He earns about 30,000-40,000 baht per month from the business.
Sawai has now set up his own cricket farm and sells eggs to those who want to raise crickets.
A plate of deep fried crickets is 20 baht.
