VietNamNet Bridge - For people in Le Thanh commune in My Duc district in Hanoi, catching grasshoppers and processing them into food has become a profession for 20 years.

At 2pm every day, Mr. Huan and his wife, Mrs. Hoa, drive a motorbike through 30km to receive a spongy box of grasshoppers, covered with a thick layer of ice, from a coach arriving from the central provinces of Nghe An or Thanh Hoa. Each box contains about 40kg of grasshoppers.

The couple arrives home at about 5pm. If there are more grasshoppers, Huan will carry another box. At home, Hoa prepares a big pot of boiling water to boil the grasshoppers.

While waiting for the water to boil, Hoa opens the spongy box. Only a short time after the ice melts, locusts can move. Hoa washes the locusts.

"The boiling stage is very important. Grasshoppers will become harder, eliminating any smell," Hoa said.

After boiling grasshoppers for about five minutes, Hoa pours the insects into a big basket to let them cool down. Grasshoppers now turn pale yellow. She separates the young grasshoppers into another basket because the old grasshoppers need further processing: breaking the legs and wings.

Removing legs and wings of grasshoppers is time-consuming.

There are many ways of processing grasshoppers, but the most favored dish is to fry the grasshoppers with lime leaves.

At around 6pm, some villagers go to Hoa’s home to take grasshoppers home to remove legs and wings. With five households trading locusts, hundreds of others have been employed.

The pay for processing 1kg of grasshoppers is VND5,000 ($0.2). On average, each person can process 5 kg of locust in three hours.

Although after locusts are boiled, the bad smell is not very strong but it is quite uncomfortable. But for the people of Le Thanh, this work has become familiar.

Processing grasshoppers must end before 11pm. Then Huan and Xoan carry the processed grasshoppers to Long Bien Market, Hanoi, to sell. They finish their job at 3am. From Long Bien wholesale market, grasshoppers are taken and sold to restaurants and other markets.

Huan buys 1 kg of fresh grasshoppers for VND60,000-VND70,000; after being processed, the price is VND90,000/kg.

Huan said he earns only VND6,000/1kg. With 200kg of grasshoppers/day, the couple earns VND30 million (nearly $1,500) per month.