Coconut worm breeder overcomes bias to feed appetite for unusual delicacy
Sponsored | Publication date 04 March 2022 | 08:05 ICT

Today [Hav Sokna] is the proud owner of the Sokna Natural Coconut Worm Farm located in Sangkat Kraing Thnong, in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district.

While commonly referred to as the coconut worm, the wriggly delicacy is actually the larva of a type of snout beetle. And after acquiring the techniques needed to breed coconut worms, Sokna set up her own enterprise in early 2021.

Her business venture has seen her turn into a confident entrepreneur, with the mother-of-two able to juggle the business with parenting.

Business success is often about good timing, and Sokna’s entry into the market selling home-grown larvae turned lucrative as social media was flooded with video clips on the eating of rare, exotic and unusual foods – fuelling demand for her tasty maggots as Cambodians rushed to try her coconut worms.

“The market demand was high from June to September last year because shows on exotic eating went viral on social media such as Facebook and TikTok.

“Many customers wanted to taste my coconut worms. I used to breed about 400 containers of the larvae, and each month I could easily sell between 50kg and 80kg.

“The retail price is 70,000 riel per kilo, while the wholesale price is about 50,000 riel,” said Sokna.

Breeding coconut worms is not a laborious business, she said, as the larvae can be hatched within seven days, and after around 45 days they are ready to be sold. Breeding can be done easily in plastic containers filled with coconut fibre.

“Coconut worms are easy to breed because they only need to be fed once in about 10 to 15 days. First we select the right breed and then choose suitable food for them.

“I use coconut shells and slightly rotten fruit from the local market, such as bananas, papayas, watermelons, jackfruits or dragon fruits.”
Full: https://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/ ... l-delicacy

If you don't like the guy's "challenge" commentary, then turn off the sound. The worms don't say much.

He’s just annoying. The video was annoying. The music was annoying. The people in the background (Thai?) we’re annoying. I’m annoying.