Male Bee Pupae Snacks
Vivaldi Beekeeping / Taewhan Shin
Vivaldi Beekeeping streams artificial beehives, male bee pupae and crusts to bee keepers
A bee society consists of a queen bee, honeybees and male bees. Male bees are around 300 to 3,000. They have big build but do nothing except mating and craving honey. For this reason, bee keepers tend to discard their pupae.
However, the pupae are rich in protein and other nutrients. Bee keepers overseas use these pupae for food but Korean counterparts have been struggling to collect and produce despite the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approved it as a food raw material in 2020.
Taking the lead
Vivaldi Beekeeping is a company streaming plastic beehives to bee keepers. These artificial beehive foundations are harmless to body and can be used semi-permanently and extend the lifespan of bees as well as output of honey.
The K90 male beehive foundations in particular makes easy of bee keepers collecting the pupae as they just remove the upper part of honeycomb cocoon and shake off the pupae without damaging the form.
"Male bee pupae grow on honey and royal jelly brought by honeybees. They become cocoon after 17 days and bees after 24 days. So the bee keepers using K90 can collect the pupae on either day 18 or 19 without difficulty. These pupae are rich in natural protein, odorless and savory and can be used as powder in other food and cosmetics." explains Sangjeong Shin, Chairman of Vivaldi Beekeeping.
Vivaldi Beekeeping received this male bee pupae production technology from the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences. The institute spend a considerable amount of money for R&D and succeeded developing male bee pupae recipes for jelly, snack and chilli pepper paste. Named by the people as Cooldaekee, it contains 51.75% protein and 17 kinds of vitamins and amino acids.
"Cooldaekee is healthier than meat for us to eat protein for our body. It is a high protein super food and we can eat it as crust." says Shin.
Global ambition
Using K90, Shin says, bee keepers can earn more with the pupae in addition to honey, royal jelly and propolis. Vivaldi Beekeeping purchase the pupae from bee keepers and make them into foods and sell in the market.
"We have succeeded commercializing the pupae like Japan 30 years ago and we are now ambitious to go global." says Taewhan Shin, CEO of Vivaldi Beekeeping.
"Around 70% to 80% honey produced in Korea is acacia which is difficult for bee keepers to collect in rainy season. Besides, there are many cheap imported honey products in the market. So we have a sense of duty to promote our male bee pupae products to raise added value and profitability." says Chairman Shin.