The prospects for the snail business in Georgia are great, as the EU market is not completely satisfied with this product, Merab Nadaraia, founder of the snail company Nadi Group, told bm.ge.
Realization of snails is not a problem, so this business is very promising. It's just that they're a little tricky to breed, but our farmers are slowly getting into that business as well,” says Nadaraia, whose company has been exporting snails to the EU market in recent years.
The export of snails from Georgia to the EU market is allowed from 2021. According to the National Statistics Office of Georgia, about 44 tons of snails worth $263.52 thousand were exported from Georgia in 2022, and about 21 tons worth $190.50 thousand in 2023. The only exporting countries were Italy and France. This year Nadi Group was not among the exporters.
“We didn't export this year because there was demand from farmers in the local market, so we couldn't breed in enough to produce extra volume on top of that and export it. However, next autumn or spring we will have enough for export. Now the production volume is about 100 tons, and we plan to increase it to 400 tons,” says the founder of Nadi Group.
According to him, the demand for snails in the EU market is high, “so we are trying to grow more snails by increasing the number of farmers. By doing this, we will try to reduce the current deficit in the EU market. The main thing is that there are no problems with the key. The main consumers of snails are Portugal, Italy, France, Spain and Greece. We are also thinking about China. However, we are mainly counting on the European Union.
Nadi Group currently employs 70 people and cooperates with 40 farmers, however, as Merab Nadaraia says, in the snail business, as in many other businesses, the main problem in Georgia today is the lack of labor, especially the lack of skilled labor . The company is trying to eliminate the shortage by supporting farmers.
