Lotte Confectionery's headquarters in Yeongdeungpo Disctrict, Seoul / Courtesy of Lotte Confectionery

By Kim Jae-heun

Lotte Confectionery has joined hands with Aspire Food Group, a Canadian edible insect company, to strengthen is future food business.

The two companies met at the headquarters of Aspire Food Group in Ontario and signed a memorandum of understanding on exclusive right to sell the Canadian products in Korea. They will also work together to expand the business worldwide starting in the Asian region and to conduct additional joint research utilizing insect materials.

"We expect the edible insect business to play an important role in exploring the future food market. We plan to strengthen our strategic partnership with Aspire Food Group and expand the business model through various collaborations in the field," a Lotte Confectionery official said.

Founded in 2016, Aspire Food Group is a global leader in the field of producing protein powder using crickets. The food tech company developed its own cricket breeding method and adapted it with artificial intelligence and smart farm technology to invent ultimately an unmanned automatic production system.

Its main business is to produce and sell freeze-dried crickets, which are used as a raw material for pet food, cricket granola and cricket flour.

Lotte Confectionery has a lot of interest in the edible insect business as it has recently been pointed to as the next alternative protein in the near future. Edible insects are currently used to make pet food mainly, but some predict that they will become a main source of protein for humans in the next 10 years.

According to business consulting firm Grand View Research, the size of the global insect protein market was $250 million in 2020 and it is expected to grow an average of 27.5 percent annually from 2021 to 2028.