Start snail farming and make money
Snail farming in Africa is one of the top interesting business opportunities on the continent.
West Africa is home to the largest species of land snail in the world. The Giant African land snail (Achatina species), is known to grow up to 30cm in length and can be found in the dense tropical rain forests across the region from Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana to Nigeria.
For hundreds of years, Africa’s appetite for snails has been served through traditional means. Snails handpicked from the bush (usually in the dead of the night) have been the only way to get snails to the market and dinner table.
However, as Africa’s population explodes and our forests continue to be sacrificed to build cities, the (bush) supply of snails cannot keep up with the soaring demand.
This has created an opportunity in the market for snail breeders and farmers who now cultivate these interesting creatures on small farms and in their backyards for impressive profits.
Let’s find out how fast these slow animals can bring in cash.
Snail farming is a niche and unusual business and successful snail farmers like Nigeria’s Ismail Abdulazeez are enjoying the huge rewards of this lucrative but little known venture. Ismail, who cultivates snails in large cages in his backyard, shares his experience breeding snails for profit. His prized products end up in some of the kitchens of high-end hotels in Lagos where they are creatively used to prepare tasty African dish.
Snails are a huge part of the diet in many parts of Africa, although they are not always affordable and available all year round. Their high protein, low fat and cholesterol content make them a nutritional favourite.
Snails contain almost all the amino acids needed by the body and most of its by-products are used for cosmetics and medicines.
As our population becomes more interested in healthier living and low-cholesterol diets, snails will become a popular alternative to to all the fatty and non-healthy meats that flood our markets nowadays. They are much cheaper than red meat with greater health benefits on top!
Snails have, for a long time, been a popular and recurring item on the menus of hotels, restaurants and bars where they often feature as boiled, fried and spiced kebabs. They are also a great addition to soups and stews which are a significant part of most African dishes.
Tasty African delicacies featuring the Giant African snail
Market Opportunities for Snail Farming in Africa
Most of the snails supplied to the African market are gathered from bushes and forests during the rainy season (usually between April and September).
Because snails are very dormant during the dry season, they become increasingly scarce during this period and the market is starved of adequate supply until the next wet season.
This makes the supply of snails very seasonal in many parts of Africa where they serve as food.
As a consequence, snails can fetch much higher prices during the dry season (December to March) when supply often does not keep up with demand.
Snails may go on break during the dry seasons but the human appetite for its taste always remains, and continues to grow throughout the year. And to think that several festivities take place during the dry season (Christmas et al), makes this a first choice agribusiness.
Due to steadily growing demand from customers, hotels and restaurants are always in need of snail delicacies on their menus.
And given the significant upside to the profits that can be made, it makes a lot of sense to take maximum advantage of this market when the supply of snails is significantly short.
There is also growing demand in Europe for giant African snails. Apart from their great taste, many people abroad like to keep them as pets and keepsakes due to their sheer size (I was surprised too!). But never mind, you are likely to be very busy satisfying the local demand to bother about exports.
However, it’s still good to know that such foreign market opportunities exist for this small business.
Giant African snails are a popular sight on Africa’s interstate and transnational highways (photo credit: Frans Lanting)
Success tips for aspiring Snail farming in Africa
As a Smallstarter, your primary goal should be to take advantage of the seasonality of this market in order to gain premium prices for your snails.
Target the high-end customers (hotels, restaurants and households) who can afford to pay a premium for a steady supply of the product.
If you supply all year round, you are likely to earn lesser during the rainy seasons (when supply is in abundance) and more in the dry seasons (when the product is scarce).
You could buy cheaply from the villages and other remote areas while the supply is up during the rainy season and maintain a healthy stock of large snails that you can unleash on your customers when supply falls in the dry season.
But to achieve this, there is a very important condition. The size of your snails must be large and ‘intimidating’ enough to command a premium (high) price.
For this to happen, you must start your snail farm with the right species (the Giant African type) and ensure that you apply proper breeding, stocking and feeding practices to achieve the huge sizes that will make you a highly sought after supplier.
If your snails are bred well, they should start to reach market size from six to twelve months, although some farmers like to leave theirs for much longer.
Presently, more than 90 percent of the snails supplied to our local markets are picked from the forests. While this has been the traditional supply source, our growing population and rising rural to urban migration rates make it unsustainable.
An artificial intervention like snail farming is the only way to satisfy the growing demand.
And as long as a huge chunk of the market depends on snails captured in the wild, nobody can assure a steady and consistent supply of large snails like a farmer who breeds snails in his/her backyard!
Some things you should consider before you start a snail farm…
In terms of cost and time, snail farming is a low risk business. Unlike many other livestock businesses, snail farming requires very little startup and operating costs.
It can be run from your backyard (if you have a sizeable one) or on that piece of land wasting away in your neighbourhood or village.
Snails are friendly to the environment and their droppings are not offensive (unlike pigs and poultry) so there’s no chance an angry neighbor will come knocking.
Snails also multiply really fast laying up to 100 eggs in one go. Because snails are hermaphrodites (have both male and female sexual organs), they get to mate easily throughout the year. This high reproduction rate has made snails a pest in many regions of the world.
However, it’s this fast reproductive ability that makes these slow creatures a delight to an entrepreneur. Snails can give very high returns on your initial investment if you do your homework well and target niche and repeat customers.
Construction of snail pen
Construction of snail pen is similar to that of maggottery. The difference is that maggottery is open while snail pen is closed. Also the height of snail pen is higher than that of maggottery.
Snails are easily dehydrated and wind increases the rate of moisture loss in snails. Therefore location of snail pen should be done in environment protected from wind. Your may also plant banana and plantain trees around the snail building so as to prevent the impact of wind.
Please do not cement your snail pen. The bottom of Snail pen is always covered with soil, because its major habitat is the soil.
This is because the soil contains some of the components and chemical substances that it needed to survive. However the most suitable soil for snail survival must possess these components;
• Must be balanced
• Must not be water-logged
• Must not also be too dry
• Must not be acidic
Therefore, the most desirable soil for snail is sandy-loam, with low water holding capacity. Clayey soil and Acidic soil must be utterly avoided.
In starting snail farm, it is advisable to get your snails from the forest rather than buying from the market. This is because the ones in the market must have been exposed to sunlight and have dehydrated.
Snails drink a lot of water, if they are exposed to sunlight; it stresses them out and reduces their fertility. The technique of getting snails from the bush for rearing is very simple.
What you have to do is to clear a little bush maybe rectangular shape during rainy season, as you are clearing, you will be dropping the leaves on the ground.
why I said rectangular in shape is so that the length of the cleared bush will be longer so that it can bring more patrolling snails. After clearing the bush, just sprinkle spicy juice plants like pineapple, pawpaw, plantain, banana, or use cassava leaves around 5pm.
Then at around 9 or 10pm, visit the place and you will catch enough snail. Repeat the procedure in subsequent times until you get enough snails.
Another way of getting snails is by going to the market place and picking their eggs. Check the fertility of the eggs because some of them must have lost fertility through the exposure to sunlight. Put the eggs into container containing wet sand, and cover with dry plantain or cocoyam leaf. Before 21 to 28 days, the snails would hatch into baby snails. After which you start feeding them and gradually you will raise a snail farm.
CONSTRUCTION OF SNAIL HOUSE (SNAILERY)
In construction of snail house, one of the major things you will bear in mind are the constraints to snailery.
The constraints are listed below
• Menace of termites
• Menace of snakes
• Menace of rats
During construction all these things must be considered. The recent construction of snail pen is done in such a way that every pen is covered by a strong wire-wedged cover that snakes, rats, cannot destroy even termites cannot penetrate.
Allowance is being provided for water circulation so as to keep the place constantly hydrated. The water circulates through the channel provided, the side walls of the pen slowly absorbs the water thereby transferring the water to the soil at the bottom of the pen.
Also when pumping water into the water channel, also splash water into the snail pens so as to keep it hydrated. See image below.
I will always advise people to always harden the base of the snail pen with cement so as to avoid the menace of termites. Let the height of the snail pen be 1m, then fill the recommended soil to a reasonable depth of your choice say 60cm for all the snail pens.
In so doing termites can never be your problem again. Another effective way of driving away termites in your farm is by applying condemned engine oil round the walls of the snailery or pen. Also use dry leaves to cover the inside of the pen because snails like dark and cold places.
Warning!!! Snails like dark and cold places but always make sure that the humidity does not drop to levels that are harmful to the snails.
FEEDING OF SNAILS
Snails can feed on the following;
LEAVES: cocoyam leaves, pawpaw leaves, okra leaves, cassava leaves, eggplant leaves, cabbage leaves, lettuce leaves etc.
FRUITS: pawpaw, banana, eggplant, pears tomatoes oil palm fruits, cucumber etc. always sort (separate the big ones from the small ones) when they start growing. The rate of reproduction in snails is very high it can become pest when their breeding is uncontrolled. Two hundred thousand snails sold at ₦50 per each is 10,000,000 (ten million naira). You are now a millionaire isn’t that good?
Do not harvest your snails when they are not matured, please make sure you harvest them when they are mature. To know if they are due for harvest, the brim of the shell should be thicker than other parts of the shell.
Is there a market for Snails?
The answer is yes!
1: First, you need to set up a website and let everyone know about your products and how to buy them.
2: Reaching out to local restaurants is a great way to start selling as chefs like to source local ingredients for their menu, and who wouldn’t love to have fresh locally grown escargots on their menu? This also reduces the cost of shipping and has less impact on the environment.
3: Visiting local farmers markets and other food markets is the easiest way to spread the word about your new business. You might meet more local businesses who would cooperate with you, or sell directly to local people.
4: There are also big snail buyers that might be interested in purchasing your snails. This is a good option if you have a lot of snails to sell, as these buyers would buy in bulk for a set price. You can find them online, or by connecting with other snail farmers who can advise on trusted buyers they sell to.
5: Use social media to build links with businesses and customers, post photos and interesting happenings on your farm. Create conversations about your business online and use platforms to maintain relationships with existing buyers.
Snails produces over 100 eggs, but some species can have up to 400. Snail breeding involves sexual reproduction. During copulation, both individuals can transfer sperm to each other, but it does not happen in all cases.
2: What is a snail favorite food?
Fruit and vegetables
3: Do snails die after laying eggs?
Snails reproduce mostly in their second year of life and may lose a lot of weight during laying eggs. Some snails never recover and die after the snail breeding season. Snails will start mating and laying eggs in months with at least 10 hours of daylight.
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