#15 – Snail Slime Business Opportunity for Africans

“Substantial profits can be made exporting snail slime to manufacturing companies abroad given the demand for snail slime and favorable currency conversion rates in Africa…..also, it costs $10 for one cooked snail at your local Nigerian restaurant in Chicago….smh”.

The Korean cosmetics industry is said to be years ahead of the western market, offering products that consumers can’t find in North American brands. For example, BB creams (Beauty Balm) have become a staple in the U.S. beauty industry, however, Koreans have used BB creams for years before they became popular in the West.

Similarly, for years, snail mucin (mucus) skin care products have been very popular in Korea and now have made its way to the United States. Snail mucus is naturally created by snails to protect and restore themselves and is a popular skincare ingredient because of its anti-aging properties that repair damaged skin and restore hydration.

According to Global Newswire, in 2019, the global snail beauty products market was $3.7 billion and is estimated to grow to $12 billion by 2029. This increase in demand is due to the growing inclination of middle age women towards grooming, favorable growth of snail farming, and shifting preference towards natural skin-improving ingredients.

We performed an independent research and noted that in May 2020, there were over 12,000 Google searches for the word “Snail Cream”, indicating that individuals are increasingly looking for snail mucus products to address their skin improvement needs.

-Mangools

Snails excrete mucus for three reasons: (1) when moving (2) when stressed and (3) when pleasured. To extract mucus, farmers drip water on the snail, pleasuring it, thereby enabling the snail to excrete mucus.

Aden International, a Thai-based cosmetics company started in 2016 buying snail mucus from local farmers and shipping the product to cosmetic manufacturers in Korea and United States. The company also sells the dried powered version of slime for $58,200 per kilogram to these manufacturers.

-arabnews.com

Extracting slime from snails is a labor-intensive process, an Italian inventor, Simone Sampo developed a machine that can mass extract snail slime in batches. He takes about 2,000 snails, puts them in his machine, where the snails are sprayed with a water-based solution allowing the snails to excrete their mucus. The mucus then flows into a jar, producing ~3.5kg of slime. See the illustrative video.

-mullerone.com

Per our initial review of the company’s website, Muller One, there was no evidence that the machine is being sold. We then reached out to the company in Italy to inquirer if the machine is available for sale; we received a response from the sales team on Monday indicating that the machine is currently available for sale for 40,000 euros ….ouch!!

Business Opportunity
Similar to the Thai-based company, Aden International, there is an opportunity for an African company to export snail slime to cosmetic manufacturing companies in Korea and Switzerland. The ability to farm large-sized African snails and access to cheap labor in Africa provide a competitive advantage to start this slime export business in Africa. Below are a few cosmetic product manufacturers which use snail mucus in their production.

• Mizon, South Korea
• Seoul Ceuticals, South Korea
• Croda International Plc, Switzerland
• Clariant AG, Switzerland

Substantial profits can be made exporting snail slime product to these manufacturing companies given the demand for snail slime and favorable currency conversion rates in Africa. There are three options one can implement to initiate this business:

Option A (Distribution): Low Effort/Low Margin

1. Contract with multiple local snail farmers to purchase snail mucus
2. Aggregate and bottle mucus purchased from farmers
3. Export mucus product at larger volumes to cosmetic manufacturers and ingredient suppliers

Option B (Service and Distribution): Medium Effort/Medium Margin

1. Hire a service workforce
2. Workforce visits multiple local snail farms on schedule to extract snail mucus manually
3. Aggregate and bottle mucus extracted by service workers
4. Export mucus product to cosmetic manufacturers and ingredient suppliers

Option C (Farming, Service and Distribution): High Effort/High Margin

1. Setup multiple commercial snail farms (relatively low start-up cost)
2. Snails will be used for both mucus extraction and sold for food consumption
3. Aggregate extracted mucus into large bottles
4. Export mucus product at larger volumes to cosmetic manufacturers and ingredient suppliers

• Snail Farming In Nigeria: A Complete 2020 Experts Guide
• Steps for Starting Snail Farming in Nigeria
• Snail Farming as a Very Lucrative Business
• Snail Farming in Small Scale (For Everyone)
• How to Feed Snails Properly and their Ideal Environment