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Namibia’s snail farm prepares for first export as N$140m project takes shape

• 2 Weeks Ago - 2025-09-22 10:18:00

By the end of September, Namibia is expected to export its first two tonnes of live snails – a milestone for NamSnails, the country’s first climate-controlled snail farming venture based outside Swakopmund.
“We are now preparing our first load to be exported to South Africa, hopefully in the next three weeks... the first two tonnes,” said NamSnails chief executive officer André Mouton, confirming that about 100 000 snails will make up the shipment.
The company breeds, hatches and fattens Helix aspersa Müller and Helix aspersa Maxima for human consumption. The snails are harvested after three to four months, purged, placed into hibernation and exported live to regional and international buyers.
“It is a live product that is exported in a hibernated state,” Mouton explained, adding that in this state, the animals can survive for up to three years.
Mouton described NamSnails as the largest snail farming project of its kind on the continent, noting that while Morocco is Africa’s largest producer overall, Namibia now hosts the largest climate-controlled farm.
The project carries an investment value of around N$140 million and is structured with South African financing partners. Originally conceived by Israeli entrepreneurs, the farm relocated to Namibia after encountering regulatory and funding challenges abroad. Swakopmund was chosen for its moderate average temperatures, but the first harvest failed when extreme climate conditions proved unsuited to open-air snail parks.
“We need to have control over more variables... breed our own snails... [and] have control over the climate,” said Mouton.
Solution
The solution was a fully climate-controlled greenhouse system, using misting, ventilation and heating to stabilise growing conditions. “We achieve about an eight-degree difference from outside to inside,” he said.
NamSnails now operates five greenhouses, three of which are fully developed. Each 5 000 m² house is divided into sections that allow for careful tracking of snail batches. “We have a full traceability system. We can trace the crates of snails that we export back to the rooms they were bred in, and back to the mother snails,” Mouton said.
The farm began in 2022 with brood stock sourced from Greece and Georgia. Juvenile snails were also imported from Lithuania to accelerate the first cycles. Eggs are hatched in incubation rooms, and juveniles are transferred to growing parks, where they feed on Chinese cabbage, kale and specially formulated pellets.
Workers harvest the snails after three to four months of growth. Before shipment, they are purged and induced into hibernation. “The next morning they are in the cool rooms, packed in crates, ready for export,” Mouton said.
NamSnails is targeting a production of about 600 tonnes per year, equivalent to millions of individual snails, by running multiple growth cycles annually. Greenhouse controls allow the farm to produce even during winter, unlike many European operations. “We can produce two seasons a year, and we are experimenting with the possibility of three,” Mouton said.
Strict protocols
Because snails are a food product, the farm must adhere to veterinary and public health protocols. “We follow HACCP principles on the farm,” Mouton said. Namibia’s Directorate of Veterinary Services has inspected and certified the facility, clearing it for regional exports while EU approvals are being pursued.
For now, NamSnails exports only live snails, similar to cattle farms selling stock to abattoirs. But Mouton said the vision is broader: to establish a Namibian abattoir and eventually produce derivative products such as protein powders and slime extract for cosmetics. He added that snail meat carries a higher protein content than many other meats, making it attractive both as a delicacy and as a future protein source.
Snail consumption has long traditions in France, Spain, Italy and Greece, where escargot is considered a delicacy. In Asia, snail slime is also used in cosmetics and treatments. Most of the global supply still comes from wild harvesting, but this is declining due to over-extraction and environmental pressures.
NamSnails sees its model – intensive, climate-controlled and traceable – as an opportunity to fill that gap. “Commercial production of snails is a new industry... you cannot just transpose a European plan into Namibia,” Mouton said. “Good things come slow – that is the motto.”