Expert Calls For Exploration Of Snail Value-Chain

A snail farmer, Mr Sunday Ido, on Wednesday called on agriculture policy makers and other stakeholders to explore development of all aspects of the snail value-chain for improved revenue generation.

Ido told journalists in Lagos that the snail value chain was currently not harnessed to its full potential.
He said: “The snail value chain in Nigeria at the moment is not fully harnessed. It is sad to say but we are still focusing on generating revenue from only the processed meat from snails, and neglecting other aspects of the value chain.
“The calcium-rich shell, the pharmaceutically-important slime or the age-defying substances are all under-valued and unexplored.
“In the global snail market today, snail meat is the least valuable in terms of earning.
“When explored adequately, the entire snail value chain will have a positive impact on our foreign exchange earnings.”
He said that Snail Farming was a very lucrative trade, because its demand was still greater than its supply.
”I doubt if there is any snail farm that lacks market for its produce.
“But the challenge is production; the cost of setting up large snail farms is increasing daily, especially with the current economic realities.
“Snail farming and farmers are left out of most of government’s agricultural intervention and this is probably because policy makers are yet to recognise the impact of the snail value-chain.
“Once we have incentives to set up larger farms, farmers will be able to meet up with local and export demands,” he said.
The snail farmer also lamented that epileptic power supply and hitches across the value-chain had not allowed for full exploration of the sector’s potential.
”Irregular power supply and poor cold chain system have been a major challenge stopping some farmers from fully harvesting and exporting snail slime.
“Just like most pharmaceuticals, snails need to be stored at certain degrees from the point of harvesting to when it can be used for pharmaceutical products and cosmetics.
“This is the advantage that countries such as Thailand and other major snail slime exporters have over us.
“Extracting slime is a win-win for the snail farmer, because the technology is available to extract it without killing the snail,” the expert said.
Ido added that currently a kilogramme of snail slime was sold for $60,000 in the North American market.
He said that the profit from snail meat was a tip of the iceberg when compared to the industrial benefits of its slime in the production of medicines and cosmetics.

NAN/Lateefah Ibrahim