Client Update: Agri House July 2023

Whilst the first thought of many people when thinking about eating insects brings a high 'ick' factor, the team at Agri House view crickets as a nutritional way out of poverty for marginalised? communities in Cambodia.

Recently Red Hat Impact founder Cameron Neil caught up with Lundy (Dy) Chou , the founder of Agri House to discuss their recent innovations and vision of modernising and harnessing the power of local cricket production to create sustainable alternative protein sources and income generation together with the communities they work with.

Red Hat Impact are proud to share their recent impact update as Lundy discusses the impact their business has created with their LendForGood loan, and we are thrilled to share with you the recorded discussion and Agri House' report.

Since their last impact update, the team have been busy innovating across their three core business units, including the completion of their major child malnutrition project with the World Food Programme in Cambodia, developing and distributing over 15,000 cricket based snacks for primary aged youth.

Lundy and the Agri House team are generous in sharing their?experiences and challenges and in the video as they expand upon their report, including :

• How cricket raising is providing income generating and financial literacy opportunities for the displaced urban poor in Phnom Penh
• The challenges in designing and setting up cricket raising kits in remote communities
• The development of their own plant based feedstock to match commercially available feedstocks currently on the market
• Why healthy eggstock is critical to ensuring a healthy cricket market across Cambodia

The full report in pdf format is linked below.

The team are constantly innovating, and are moving closer to their goal of achieving? their IKEA inspired cricket raising kits, that can be made quickly, easily transported and constructed without the requirement of power tools - a must when working with indigenous communities on the Cambodian/Laos border that have no access to electricity.

This innovation is being tested together with major conservation organisation Rising Phoenix? and has raised the interest of a number of international development partners for its future ability to scale.

Agri House? successfully raised their second impact loan with Red Hat Impact and LendForGood in February 2022 (AUD$70,000 over 30 months at 8% interest), providing operating capital, allowing them to attract more international non-governmental organisations as clients, and continuing to innovate their raising kits and establishing payment mechanisms between farmers and microfinance institutions.

Their long term strategic approach is now becoming a reality, with INGO partners looking for long term projects that will impact over 200 families.? Agri House are also in discussion with Rising Phoenix for the purchase of organic rice from indigenous families to supply their feedstock needs, further increasing their impact and reducing the risk of families poaching native and protected species.

A full report is linked below, and for more information on the impact loan completed via LendforGood, see the details here,

All words and images courtesy of Red Hat Impact and Agri House, July 2023