Welcome to the Ronnie’s Succulent Snails website!

Who is Ronnie?

Ronnie is a 21 year old Canberra man who loves animals, loves his sport and loves his family.
Ronnie also has a moderate intellectual disability, as well as a life-long history of hospitalisation, injuries and surgeries due to a serious chronic epileptic condition.
Ronnie’s challenges mean that entering regular mainstream employment is not an option for him.
However, having completed his schooling at Canberra’s Black Mountain School, Ronnie’s family was determined to find a sustainable career that would help support his physical, mental and social development and also provide inspiration for others who are trying to help loved ones with special needs.
Breeding and growing snails for the ever-hungry restaurant market (pun intended) proved to be the perfect solution!
Now, Ronnie enjoys taking care of his snails every day, ensuring they have clean homes as well as adequate food and water. He also keeps a close eye on them since they have great escape techniques!

More about social enterprise

Ronnie’s Succulent Snails is a new social venture with a goal to provide sustainable employment for Ronnie and a stimulating working environment for him.
A social enterprise can be described as a feasible and profitable business – that’s built around a sound business model – but which also serves a social purpose; for example, in this case, providing a sustainable employment solution for someone who would be otherwise unable to enter the mainstream workforce.
Access to employment opportunities is very difficult for those with high and complex support needs.
The business provides a means for Ronnie to engage with the community and raise the awareness that people with disabilities can be valuable contributors to society.
Many social enterprises in Canberra, including Ronnie’s Succulent Snails, have been developed with assistance from the ACT Social Enterprise Hub.

The business of raising snails

Ronnie’s business is breeding and growing snails for the restaurant market in Australia.
After being collected from gardens all over Canberra, the snails are put in quarantine and fed a special diet to ensure they are clean, safe and free of any toxins.
Daily requirements in caring for the snails include misting the air to keep the snails cool, feeding and watering the snails, cleaning the pens and removing any snails that have passed on to the Great Vegie Garden in the sky.
Once a week, Ronnie also aerates the soil to help keep the plants and snails healthy.
When the snails have reached the right size and are looking plump and juicy, Ronnie carefully prepares boxes for transport.
Ronnie also breeds snails. Did you know that snails are hermaphrodites? That is, they have both male and female sex organs. When the snail is large enough and it reaches maturity, (which may take several years), mating occurs in the late spring or early summer.
A snail can lay between 90 and 130 eggs within a few weeks. This is a risky business for snails: the effort of laying eggs means the snail loses a lot of weight and some do not recover. In fact, about one-third of the snails will die after the breeding season.
Ronnie’s business is a supplier of snails to a large commercial grower and he follows strict guidelines established by them to ensure only the finest quality, toxin-free snails are produced for the demanding restaurant market.
Once they reach the desired size, mature snails are sold to the commercial grower who is then responsible for preparation, processing, sale and marketing of the snails as escargot in Australia.

The snail industry

Heliciculture is the process of farming or raising snails.
The common garden snail (also known as Heli aspersa) has a life span between 2 and 5 years and is more adaptable to different climates and conditions than many other species of snail.
There is a flourishing market for the international trade of snails across Europe and North America. In France, the annual requirement for snails is about 5 million kilograms (over 60% of which is imported), while the estimated annual consumption in Italy is 306 million snails.
In addition, snail meat has traditionally been a major ingredient in the diet of people living in the high forest belt of West Africa, while an estimated 7.9 million kilograms of snail meat is eaten annually in the Cote d’Ivoir region.
In Australia, the demand for snails exceeds availability, and the current market potential of snails is very sizeable, both locally and internationally.
Importantly, virtually every part of the snail is of vital use – in food as well as pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, even the jewellery and fishing industries!

Get involved!

Are you worried about using poisons to control snails in your garden, especially with pets and children around?
Would you like to quickly and humanely rid your garden of snails while helping a worthy social enterprise?
Then get on board with Ronnie’s snail collection program!
All you need to do is collect the snails from your garden (kids might be happy to help with this!) and keep them in a secure container with some small air holes.
Also place some vegetable leaves and a lid filled with water in the container, if they are going to be in there for a few days.
Then contact Ronnie to arrange pick-up or delivery!