Admittedly, people in Southeast Asia enjoy a bit of exotic food now and then: cicadas, grasshoppers, ants, crickets and locusts. However, a man living in Conghua, Guangzhou is taking people’s love for one of those exotic delicacies—deep-fried locust—very seriously.

According to a report by Nandu on April 23, a local farmer named Xie Bozhen is raising more than 7 million locusts at a farm in Conghua after he heard the deep-fried insects are considered some of the tastiest culinary dishes among foodies.

Deep-fried locusts (Photo credit: People’s Daily)

According to the report, all of Xie’s insects are raised in a farm nestled deep in the woods (Let’s hope so). Covering an area of 10,000 square meters, Xie’s farm can produce up to nine batches of grown locusts, with each batch weighing between 6 tons and 8 tons. Besides making the insects into packaged snacks, Nie is planning to grind the insects into powder as fish feed, and sell them to fish farmers due to their high protein.

Nie’s entrepreneurial spirit was met with jitters from the officials at the local agriculture bureau who fear an eminent locust plague if the much loathed insects were to be let loose.

But since there is no law banning locust farming, Xie signed an agreement with the bureau which states that in case of locust outbreak, Xie would be responsible for administering pesticides to the bugs and providing compensation for any economic damage caused.

If Xie is looking for a name for his new delicacy, we’d suggest the name “Legion”; for they are many.

Home page photo credit: Nandu