In 2007, Rosemary Odinga, the daughter of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was the only snail farmer licensed by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to raise the slimy creatures. However, the venture has been on the rise among Kenyan farmers due to increasing demand brought about by the influx of West African and Asian nationals into the country who find snails a common delicacy.

According to a recent report from the United Nation’s trade and development arm, UNCTAD, Kenya has among the largest number of immigrants across African nations due to the country’s diversified economy that attracts labour from other regions and continents.

Many of the immigrants come from West Africa, from countries such as Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, and are creating a lucrative market for the snail farmers in Kenya.

Wangui Waweru is one such farmer, in Nakuru. She started rearing snails way back in 2012 when she visited a fellow farmer from Kisumu who was raising the creatures: immediately she developed interest and registered for a course by KWS.

Photo of an African giant land snails

On completion and licensing, which cost her Sh1,500, she invested Sh30,000 from her savings to set up the snail farm, buying greenhouse polythene, wire mesh and 100 plastic basins. Since then, she has never looked back.

She says her biggest customers are expatriates in Kenya who come from West Africa, Europe, and Asia who, unlike the locals, have developed a taste for what locals consider unpalatable, but which is very healthy meat, high in protein and very low in cholesterol.

“I rear Giant African land snail which I sell at between Sh2,000 to 3,000 per kilo, while on average I sell 30 kilograms of the snails per month to Ghanaians, Cameroonians, Nigerians, Senegalese, Sierra Leones and Togolese, South Americans and Asians in the country,” said Wangui.

According to the farmer who currently has 4,500 snails in her farm, the Giant African snails that thrive in hot and humid environment like that in Lanet have an average lifespan of 5-7 years, but with good management, they can live up to 10 years.

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Another farmer in the same line is Michael Muchilwa from Kisumu who also rears Giant African land snails in his 10m by 10m greenhouse in his compound.

He invested Sh40,000 to set up the farm, which now has over 2,000 snails and he says that feeding the creatures is not as expensive as other animals as they feed on vegetable leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and tree barks once in a day. However, their slippery nature calls for a constant supply of water.

“We also feed them egg shells for calcium to strengthen their shell. We boil the egg shells to kill any pathogen, crush into fine powder and sprinkle on the soil,” said Muchilwa.

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He sells a kilo of snails from Sh2,000 to Sh2,500 as demand is high among Nigerians, Ghanaians and Asians foreigners who buy at least 5kg of snails weekly. 

The rising venture has also drawn in students. Roussoss Demisse Odhiambo a 24-year-old thrid year IT student at MKU University recently decided to venture into it after a visit to a restaurant where he found people served snails and developed an interest of doing it as a side hustle and supplying them to such food joints. He got some 15 snails from Mombasa after setting up a small structure at his farm at Karen Nairobi and obtaining a license from KWS. Today, the creatures have multiplied fast, from 15 to over 1,800, and he is selling a kilo of snails at Sh1500 to Sh3000.

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“I market my produce mostly through social media and most of my customers are Nigerians Ghanaians, Italians, Chinese, and Spanish while other customers are usually referrals by other customers. who really encourage him,” said Odhiambo.

Farmers interested in rearing African Giant Snails  must first get a no-objection letter from the National Museum of Kenya then proceed to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) for a rearing permit. This is because snails are considered wildlife.

Farmers interested in rearing African Giant Snails  must first get a no-objection letter from the National Museum of Kenya then proceed to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) for a rearing permit. This is because snails are considered wildlife.

African Giant Snails can then be obtained locally since they are common in the country especially during rainy seasons or the university is also offering training to discerning farmers besides selling snail stocks.

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) sells 30 African giant snails at about Sh10,000.

The snails are fed on fruits and vegetables and their housing demand is also quite modest since they can be bred in wooden boxes or even old tyres as long as a low -temperature environment is guaranteed.

Given they are hermaphrodites, snails reproduce easily throughout the year, sometimes laying up to 300 eggs at a time while by six months the young snails will be mature enough to begin producing eggs. Snails also require low maintenance including feed.

It is estimated that the global snail industry is worth more than $12 billion or Sh1.2 trillion, with 450,000 tons consumed for their meat and byproducts each year.

This level of consumption is driven by the high nutrition value of snail meat.

According to a study by a team of experts from Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria on Marketing of African Giant Snail (Achatina Achatina) in Anambra State, snail meat is high in protein (12-16%), low in fat (0.05-0.80%), has iron content between 45-50mg/kg and contains almost all the amino acids needed by humans.

Roussoss Demisse Odhiambo can be reached on +254 705 210 033 while Wangui Waweru on 0721433221

Pineapples are the second most exported fruit in the world, after bananas, but with demand now growing sharply on the fashion for processing pineapples into wines, vinegars and baked goods, Kenya is ideally positioned to achieve export growth with the fruit.

According to a Global Market Review of Major Tropical Fruits report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global exports of pineapple rose to around 3m tonnes in 2018, up 7.8 per cent from 2017. The sharp growth was primarily driven by rising demand for the fruit in the US, where sales rose by 27.5 per cent, but was also supported by strong growth in other major markets, such as Israel and the Middle East.

Europe is also an important buyer of pineapples, accounting for nearly a third of the global market, and spanning Kenya’s major markets for pineapples in France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

 A key driver in the growth has been new product niches, such as pineapple wines and vinegar.  In the US, for instance, 48 squeezed fresh pineapples make 25 bottles of wine that sell at Sh400 each. While the costs go beyond the price of the pineapples themselves, based on the initial price of Sh20 per fresh pineapple (48 x 20 = Sh960), the wine business adds many times that input cost in final value, with the 25 bottles selling for a total of Sh10,000.

Pineapples are also cheaper than most other tropical fruits, such as avocados and mangoes, further helping sales during a time of relative austerity in international markets.  According to Trigde, a US import research company, a kilogram of pineapple costs Sh147 while that of mangoes costs Sh194.

Demand is also being boosted by the fruit's rise as a cooking ingredient in pies and cakes. The global bakery market was estimated at $203.8bn in 2018 and is projected to expand at an average rate of 3.2 per cent a year from 2019 to 2025, according to Bakery Product Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Grand View Research Inc.

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Finally, pineapple sales are rising as a result of the world population’s interest in healthy eating, which has seen an increase in the consumption of tropical fruits generally. Eating pineapples gives the body healthy nutrition with energy and immunity vitamins being the two healthy highlights from the fruit.  It also contains starch, potassium, Vitamin C, Protein, calcium and phosphorous.

In meeting this rising demand, Kenyan farmers, furthermore, have a competitive advantage in the Israeli market, because, apart from Ghana, it’s the only other African country that can export the fruit to Israel as it has complied with the food safety regulations that stipulate that the fruit must be void of pest and diseases.

According to Fresh Plaza, farmers who export this fruit to Israel can earn 15 times more than their peers who sell locally. A medium sized pineapple sold in Kenya for Sh60 goes for Sh955 in Israel, with Fresh Plaza noting that this is a very promising market for farmers, as the country imports a large volume of pineapples.

As producers, small scale farmers contribute 10 per cent of Kenya’s total pineapple production with large scale farms and plantations contributing the other 90 per cent. Of the large scale farms, Delmonte contributes the biggest share, at close to 1.3m tons, while the Kakuzi and Ndemo farms contribute 7,000 tons and 16,000 tons. 

Pineapples are grown mostly in Central region (Gatundu and Thika) in large scale and in Lake Basin region (Homa Bay, Kericho, Migori, and Kisii areas) and the Coast region (Malindi region) in small scale.

Across these regions, Kenya produces more than is demanded in the local market, making a focus on export markets key to curbing wastage. However, successful exports depend on quality and compliance with international food safety regulations.