Kumasi-based snail business start-up, Demasko Farms won the Top Ayoba Influencer for best use of QR Code for sign ups and engagement on the MTN Super App, Ayoba.
Demasko was among the final 18 selected through a rigorous 13-week long process from hundreds of start-ups who entered this year’s MTN Ayoba-MoMo Accelerator Program in Accra.
At the MTN Ayoba MoMo Accelerator programme, Demasko Farms pitched the Demasko Smart App, a micro app that leverages on the Ayoba Super App to connect to customers and potential clients across the globe.
Founder and CEO of Demasko Farms, Desmond Adomako said in joining the Ayoba App, the plan was to “integrate online pay where customers can get access to recorded training and materials at low cost.”
Four start-ups, including Demasko Farms eventually won GHS20,000 each plus a lifetime partnership with MTN for their yeoman’s performance, while one top winner, Noni Hub to the ultimate prize of GHS50,000.
For Desmond Adomako and even the other participants, it was farfetched for a local snail producer to have won such a sophisticated award, competing with start-ups in fintech, healthtech, edutech and other more prominent aspects agritech.
But a closer look at the full scope of what Demasko Farms does would show that the start-up is into way more than just traditional snail raring and distribution.
Snail Business
As far as the snail business is concerned, beyond raring and selling live sales to individuals and institutions, Demasko also supplies dried and frozen snails, offers training in snail farming and builds snail pens for homes and institutions.
But the silver lining in its snail business is the extraction, filtering and packaging of snail slime for sale to cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies for the productions of medicines and cosmetic products.
Desmond tells Techgh24 that the snail slime extraction business is very lucrative, explaining that 1liter of liquid filtered snail mucus sells for between €45 and €80, while the dry lyophilized snail mucus sells for between €8 and €15 per gram.
Demasko’s clientele include snail sellers at various markets, individual snail consumers, potential snail farmers/trainees, hotels & restaurants, local eateries (chop bars), snail farmers, export contracts, as well as pharmaceutical & cosmetics companies.
Consultancy and Training
Apart from its exploits in the snail business, Demasko rides on the expertise of its CEO as a CSIR-trained expert to offer consultancy in farm set up, and also offers training in organic farming, fish and poultry farming, as well as maggot production.
Additionally, Demasko supplies breeding stock (POL), tarpaulin ponds, fish fingerlings, and also constructs fish ponds for homes and institutions.
Besides all that, the start-up also offers what it calls the Demasko Smart Pack to its customers and trainees. The smart pack comprise of the the following:
- Training in snail farming skills,
- Progressive snail farming training,
- Demasko snail pen,
- 50 pieces of snails,
- Treated soil/sawdust,
- 6kg of feed supplement and
- A certificate of assurance that Demasko will buy from you at the end of the season.
In partnership with National Youth Authority (NYA) in the Ashanti Region, Demasko has trained and empowered several young people and physically challenged persons for free, under its Demasko Smart Pack program. They have also extended same gesture to small holders farmers to scale up.
Awards and Recognitions
Apart from the recent MTN Ayoba MoMo award, Demasko’s Founder and CEO was also adjudged The Best Trainee for Gamma Cohort 8 at No Business as Usual (NBU) Hub sponsored by European Union, SOS Children’s Village and Asokore Mampong Municipality.
Desmond also got UNDP scholarship to attend the Thunderbird Executive Education’s Global Entrepreneurship and Innovation Virtual Bootcamp, won Mobile Phone Support at GIZ Entrepreneurship Training, and Machinery Support in the SNV GrEEn Business Plan Competition.
About Demasko Farms
Demasko Farms was founded on 17th January, 2020 Desmond Adomako out of a passion to impact his community in a unique way after obtaining a degree in Educational Psychology from university of Cape Coast. Desmond had a stint with snail production business while he was in senior high school so, he had an understanding of the the high demand for snails and snail products in both the local and international markets, and that presented an opportunity for him to venture into the business. He therefore enrolled at CSIR in Femesu to improve his skills in snail farming and that is what gave birth to Demasko Farms.
The company has a vision to create a healthy life for people across the globe through farming. The start-up expects to achieve this by venturing into commercial snail slime business, green house farming, organic farming including fish, poultry farming and vegetables farming. From their small corner in Kumasi-Aboaso, Demasko has plans to expand across the entire country and and to ultimately “export our snails, snail slime and snail feed supplement across the globe.”
