ANYONE FOR SNAILS?
Shell, meat, slime . . . nothing goes to waste at SA’s first snail processing plant – and locals are benefiting too
THEY’RE the creatures that invade your garden, nibble your plants and leave a trail of slime. But don’t be too quick to condemn them – they could earn you a bit of money. Snails are in high demand at the country’s first snail plant near Mossel Bay in the Western Cape.
“My dream is that there’ll be no more reason to go hungry if you can collect snails,” says Wally Hammond (53), one of the founders of the iVitl factory. “You could earn upwards of R30 a kilogram by supplying the factory with snails.”
No part of the snail goes to waste at the so-called “snailbattoir”. Everything from the meat to the shells is harvested and the slimy secretions are used in beauty and medicinal products.
The factory provides an income for the community of Friemersheim, near Great Brak River. Wally says they’ve secured a tract of forestry land from the state suitable for a snail farm that can increase the factory’s supply and help the locals earn a living.
“We’re going through a drought now, which isn’t good for snails,” says Jerome van Aswegen (54), senior leader of the Friemersheim community. “But we trust in God that we’ll have a good season with the snails when it’s cooler and it rains.”
IN AUGUST this year the first snails were delivered to the factory. Wally abandoned his pig farm in Bloemfontein in January last year and moved to Mossel Bay after discovering there was a global shortage of table snails, an affordable source of protein. South Africa already has several snail farms, some of which export tons of live snails mainly to China and Europe. Wally wanted to start SA’s first processing plant. In Mossel Bay he met Fanie Pretorius, a mechanical engineer, and along with a group of investors they established iVitl. By the end of July their factory building had been completed and in August they started developing “prototypes” of products. These products are now undergoing independent testing because the factory has to be LEFT: Snails can be a hot commodity rather than a nuisance, as SA’s first snail-processing factory aims to prove. BELOW: Clinton Wannies keeps the snails at the factory moist with a spray bottle.
Scompliant with local and international standards.
They’re also experimenting with snails as animal feed. “The high calcium content of the snail shells makes them ideal as animal feed. In chickens it strengthens bones and egg shells and it also makes carp grow faster,” Fanie explains.
The meat will be supplied to restaurants in vacuum-sealed packs of six or 12 snails. At the moment most of the snails served in gourmet restaurants worldwide are sourced from Europe.
Inside the factory are towers of cupboards with gauze doors. Inside the cupboards plastic sheets are suspended like curtains, against which the snails glide.
“This little lot is going to be turned into pet food,” employee Clinton Wannies explains as he spritzes the snails with water. They’re installing sprinklers between the cupboards for temperature control because heat and dryness spell death for snails. They’re kept alive for seven days before processing starts.
Snails are killed in the most humane way possible. First they’re put in a state of hibernation when the temperature is lowered to 5°C. Thinking it’s winter, they withdraw into their shells and go to sleep. Then they’re transferred to boiling water for three minutes. They don’t feel a thing.
And voila! Escargot – or animal feed, or beauty products.