Product Policy

Product Policy Building a snail farm The snail business basically involves three different, but related activities, that depend on each other: Raising, processing and selling the snails, in that order. That is, there would be three cost centres for the same purpose. - Firstly, the snail farm will be designed and built according to the predicted sale volumes. - Secondly: the snail processing will not be expensive, but it does have a high labour cost. - Thirdly, the cost of selling and distributing snails. We presume that the export revenue will be divided in three parts. If we decide to outsource the two final stages we will be getting a small part of the selling price, which might not even cover the farming costs. Before starting up a snail farm, we have to decide if we are going to do it on our own or if we will outsource some parts. We must know the exact cost of the snail processing, and the price the processing company would pay for our snail products. When we know this, we can calculate the projected investment and profits. Building a snail farm can be done with creativity and a “bit” of money, but a snail processing plant has to follow the rules and policies of state and sanitary authorities, requiring a lot of money and a bit of creativity. You can choose to build installations to produce 1000 to 2000 kilograms a month. If increased production is necessary, then further investment is required. Getting 10 snail producers involved in a cooperative would be a great solution. It would lobby the authorities for specific legislation to improve the efficiency of the farms. Buyers require a certain volume of snails at regular intervals. But, do all buyers demand the same quantity? The answer can be found through market research. The cooperative would share processing, selling and distribution costs between its members, improving profit margins for all. Snail farms For raising snails there are at least two types of snail farms. Open panels are the oldest; they date back from Roman times, when they developed the production of snails in open, fresh and sunny places like the walls of their houses. Nowadays, this mechanism has been intensely modified into walls of 18 to 21 feet tall with irrigation through aspersion, halls and shelters, with complementary plants for their nutrition. Other type of farms use closed panels that require the adaptation of a hermetic place as a barn, which is conditioned with temperature and humidity equipment. This type of snail farm is the most preferred by professional snail farmers to ensure the security and wellbeing of snails, which are fragile creatures that like to crawl over different surfaces, therefore they get hard to find by the human eye.