CRICKET FACTORY SOLD:
Taxpayers poured $35 million into massive failure

Farmers Forum staff

LONDON — The carcass of the world’s largest cricket factory supported by millions in federal tax dollars is now owned by a real estate and manufacturing firm after the recent conclusion of receivership proceedings for the bankrupt bug business.

On Sept. 19, Halali Group Holdings Ltd. finalized its purchase of the former Aspire Food Group’s London plant and related assets from the receiver, Toronto-based FTI Consulting Canada. The buyer intends to explore opportunities to source a commercial tenant for the London facility so that it will continue to be used for industrial purposes, including, potentially, the insect agriculture business,” according to the receiver.

FTI was granted control of the property in May at the behest of secured creditor Farm Credit Canada when the cricket growers fell behind on their debt. As of Aug. 31, FCC was owed just over $44 million by Aspire and affiliated numbered companies, according to FTI’s latest report to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The operation also owed between $10 million and $12 million to unsecured creditors, including $4.5 million to employees and trade suppliers, and $2.5 million in unpaid HST for the Canada Revenue Agency.

Aspire Food Group, founded in 2012 by five McGill University students, opened the new London plant in June 2022, aiming to churn out 13 million kilograms of cricket protein annually for human and pet food markets. They developed their technology in Texas but had trouble scaling it up in London and wound up operating at “significantly less than full capacity,” according to the receiver’s report.

“This was caused by, amongst other things, (a) geographical and environmental differences between the growing process in Texas, where the growing process was developed, and Ontario, where the Aspire Group sought to scale up the growing process; (b) changes in the growth and harvest methods (such as a new tote design and a new stacking system); and (c) equipment issues, including problems with the hopper and conveyor systems.”

Canadian taxpayers pumped in more than $35 million to Aspire’s London project through different federal funding streams: $10 million through Sustainable Development Technology Canada; $8.5 million through the AgriInnovate program; and $16.8 million through the Advanced Manufacturing Supercluster program. At the time, the project aligned with a global environmentalist push that promoted insects as a more climate-friendly source of protein and food.