Wangui Waweru is the proprietor of Golden Snail Farm in Nakuru County dealing in rearing and breeding of snails.
In an interview with WoK, the farmer disclosed that snails are starved for at least seven days before they are sold to customers.
Wangui explained that starvation of snails is part of preparation processes considered once a client has placed an order for snails.
“When someone places an order, I’ll have to count seven days before doing the delivery because I need enough time to starve them
“I’ll not starve them completely, I’ll just give them water to clean the system. The meat is somehow poisonous when it has food,” she explained.
Wangui further explained that while the starving the snails, she has to clean it’s house everyday to prevent it from eating its own waste.
“I’ll have to do cleaning everyday to make sure that the area is very clean in order to prevent it from eating its waste,” she explained.
Wangui also makes beauty products, serum from the snail slime and soaps, using snails.
Using snail serum helps the skin by hydrating, preventing ageing, treating dry skin and stretch marks.
It also helps stimulate the formation of collagen and elastin, protects the skin from free radicals, soothes the skin, repairs damaged tissues and restores hydration.
On the other hand, soaps made from snails moisturizes the skin, helps to stimulate collagen production and diminish fine lines and wrinkles.
Snail farming
As earlier reported on WoK, Wangui discovered snail rearing as a lucrative business after a visit to Kisumu.
She interacted with a snail farmer who gave her tips on snail rearing and markets for her produce.
“The idea to venture into snail farming came about during one of my trips to Kisumu to sell farm produce. I visited a snail farmer who dished out a few tips on rearing them as well as potential markets
“She took me to the farm where she had bought them and I developed an interest in rearing the snails immediately,” Wangui said.
After traveling back to Nakuru, Wangui decides to venture into snail farming, and enrolled for a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) course.
She later received a permit from KWS at a cost of Ksh 1,500 after which she started procuring the required materials for the business.
With her Ksh 30,000 savings, Wangui bought a greenhouse polythene, wire mesh and 100 plastic basins.
At the moment, the snail farmer sells these delicacies to her customers drawn from West Africa, Asia and parts of Europe.