Snails: an industry filled to the brim with opportunities

Snail-breeding enterprise CSC Heliculture began as a small-scale operation, but now business is booming thanks to growth in the market. Co-owner Christiaan Jooste spoke to Pieter Dempsey about the company’s success.

- Pieter Dempsey

Friends Christiaan Jooste, Stephan Pretorius and Coenie Espach started their indoor urban snail-farming operation as a hobby during last year’s COVID-19related hard lockdown. Under the business name CSC Heliculture (CSC), they developed a unique system adapted specifically to produce snails indoors, unlike most snail-growing operations in South Africa that follow the outdoor method.

Jooste, Pretorius and Espach live in the same complex, and began the project on a small scale in one of their garages. This is one of the reasons they chose an indoor system; using a vertical farming approach enables them to produce more in a smaller space. An indoor system is also easier to clean, and makes harvesting the eggs less of a challenge. Moreover, it allows them to keep a closer eye on their snails and operation, says Jooste. Most of the issues an outdoor snail farm faces, such as pests, extreme weather conditions and soil bacteria, are also eliminated.

CSC started with 500 breeder snails imported from Lithuania. However, the snails quickly outgrew the available space, producing 70 000 babies in just two months, and the entrepreneurs were thus forced to move the operation to an industrial estate in Centurion, where there were larger indoor premises.

With no previous farming experience, they spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of the industry and how to efficiently grow snails indoors. Jooste adds that much research was conducted to determine the ideal conditions (temperature, soil and feed) in which to effectively raise snails. In the beginning, for example, CSC used normal potting soil in which to morph the eggs. They have since switched to river sand and synthetic soil, which provide the eggs with a better environment.