Good Agricultural Practices for cricket farming released for the first time

19-Mar-2018 - Last updated on 10-Jul-2019 at 10:32 GMT

The first GAP for crickets has been released in Thailand. ©iStock

Thailand has published the first ever Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) in relation to cricket farming, with one insect-based food manufacturer suggesting it could become the global standard.

The Thai ACFS (National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards) from the Ministry of Agriculture will initially focus on having the GAP standards applied to the 20,000 cricket farmers in Thailand.

But it may also ask the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to have its GAP recognised as the worldwide standard for cricket farming, further improving the development of the edible insect market.

Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) are a set of rules for farming in an efficient and safe way, ensuring food will get to the processing facilities in compliance with the correct standards.

The GAP document is available on the ACFS site, but it is only published in Thai.

Implementation underway

The Cricket pasta producer Bugsolutely has made a non-official translation of the document available for download at its website here.

Bugsolutely founder Massimo Reverberi told us: “This is the first Good Agriculture Practices standard for cricket farming in the world and the implementation in Thailand has already started.

“Farmers are receiving training and their activity will be verified and registered. The GAP is broken down into five subsections, starting from how the cricket farm should be built and managed, to the animal health and traceability.

“Guidelines for waste treatment are also included. With this practices it will be easier to teach the farmers how to prepare the farm and the rearing pens for the crickets, how to handle eggs and generations, how to control feed and water and train the staff of the farm.”