Unlike many Nigerian graduates roaming the cities looking for government and private jobs, this young man decided to take a degree in Entrepreneurship, and after completing several trainings and internships in heliciculture (snail farming), set up one of the biggest snail farms with an eye fixed on local and international markets.
In an interview with Daily Trust, Mr. Oko Agbahi, 33, explained why he decided to invest in snail farming against the popular subsectors like poultry, fishery or other areas of livestock production.
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“With over 10 years experience consulting, producing, processing, buying and selling snails and its by-products, I developed a keen eye for detail whilst assisting in the production and processing for the global market which equipped me with the capacity and competencies to build a 50,000 capacity snail farm and start my company, Gals Agro Limited, with my partner Bala Longyen in March 2020,” he said.
The coy is a production, processing and consultancy company for the Giant African Land Snails, which aims to raise the standards of snail farming in Nigeria.
The agro company, motivated by existing huge demand-supply gap of over 60 per cent, is currently building one of the largest snail farms in Ubulu Okiti Local Government Area of Delta State.
The farm is expected to commence production by the 4th quarter of this year – precisely on the 1st of October 2022.
“We are building 20 greenhouses, 200 trench pens and a 12-plot plantation snail farm. This project is designed to produce, process and export an estimated two million snails annually from the first quarter of 2023, as well as process snail slime (mucus) in commercial quantities for cosmetic companies locally and globally, production of snail feed in commercial quantities for sale locally and globally as well as other heliciculture by-products. Our infrastructure and technology meets global best standards as we are a very futuristic and technology driven company pioneering very modern approaches of farming in Nigeria.
“Our motivation for going into heliciculture (snail farming) instead of other more popular forms of livestock farming is because farming snails is relatively cheaper and the increasing demand locally/globally for heliciculture produce, mainly snail (meat & slime) far exceeds the supply by over 60percent,” he said.
Oko explained that the economic potentials of snail farming in Nigeria are massive because it is a relatively new area of livestock farming with huge demand at home and abroad, which is why he is building “Africa’s largest snail farms one at a time” under the auspices of the company.
Eye on the N545bn global market
The global market for edible snail is 300,000 metric tons valued at $1.3 billion (about N545 billion) with an annual compact growth rate of 4.5 percent per annum.
The farmer highlighted some reasons that make snail farming profitable, which include high profit margin, easily exportable live, with a shelf life ranging from 2 to 6 months, not susceptible to any serious diseases and relatively low initial investment among others.
Why demand for snail is increasing
Dr Joseph Cobbinah, Adri Vink and Ben Onwuka while writing on “Snail Farming: Production, processing and marketing” in 2008, said snail is discovered to be “high in protein (12-16percent) and iron (45-50 mg/kg), low in fat, and contains almost all the amino acids needed by humans.”
They particularly noted that for the people living in high forested area in West Africa, snail meat has traditionally been a major ingredient in their diet.
“In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, an estimated 7.9 million kg are eaten annually. In Ghana, it is clear that demand currently outstrips supply. International trade in snails is flourishing in Europe and North America. However, in spite of the considerable foreign and local demand, commercial snail farms such as those in Europe, South-East Asia and the Americas hardly exist in Africa.
“In Ghana, Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, where snail meat is particularly popular, snails are gathered from the forest during the wet season. In recent years, however, wild snail populations have declined considerably, primarily because of the impact of such human activities as deforestation, pesticide use, slash and burn agriculture, spontaneous bush fires, and the collection of immature snails. It is therefore important to encourage snail farming (heliciculture) in order to conserve this important resource,” they said.
Speaking on the nutritional value of the product, Mr. Agbahi said that the other “medicinal value of snail meat includes treatment of whooping cough, anemia, asthma, and high blood pressure due to their relatively low cholesterol level but high mineral content, as they form an essential component of both the nucleus and cell protoplasm and are found in most extracellular animal tissue fluid.
“With the rising incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and other cardiovascular diseases, resulting from the excessive consumption of saturated fatty foods, particularly from animal sources, coupled with physical inactivity – of white-collar job generation, the eating of snail meat may help in curtailing the high incidences of diet related non communicable diseases.”
Access to fund
One of the challenges confronting farmers generally is access to funds to finance their farm operations but the farmer said he has been able to overcome some of these challenges with finance.
“Our work speaks for itself as we have been able to get funding from local and foreign investors willing to invest substantially in the heliciculture space, we have built capacity over the years by providing top notch services to our clients and distinguishing ourselves with the caliber of farms we have built and the amount of profit we have been able to generate for our investors.
“We are fortunate that government of the day has given a lot of incentives to encourage Agro businesses, we don’t see challenges, we see opportunities to provide solutions only,” he said.
His plans for the future
Speaking on his plans for the project in the coming years, Mr. Agbahi said he wants to provide consulting services and trainings for other snail farmers, “construct large-scale commercially viable snail farms that meet global best practices and consistently supply good quality and affordable snails and its by products (snail slime, snail feed, snail shell, snail offal and processed snail sand).
He also wants “to contribute to the community through providing employment and building a vast network of heliciculturists to plug in the value chain while building human capacity to contribute towards food sustainability.”
And above all, “remain financially viable and operate efficiently to ensure the company receives sufficient income to meet all of its costs and expenses.”
He sees synergy as a key element to successful farming, adding that “we can claim to have the broadest network of heliciculturists (snail farmers) in Nigeria. We consider every client a partner; we do not only consult and build farms for our clients, we also go as far as offering to manage and run the farm to ensure our clients make substantial profits on their investments.”
“I have a broad network of heliciculturists and have consulted for and worked with several agro firms and individuals to start and build their own snail farming businesses,” he stated.
