One company has let down all industry players in the Nigerian market: The international and very promising market for high-tech value-added processed products is closing for Nigeria before it starts

The international and very promising market for high-tech value-added processed products closes for Nigeria before it starts.

The export of snail slime and other snail products is restricted from the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at least to countries participating in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

World Trade-Organization Memb Map (WTO)              Map of countries participating in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)

The Federal Republic of Nigeria (which is a member of the World Trade Organization and a party to multilateral international copyright treaties) has been caught in an international scandal involving the processing of African snails and the production of snail mucus. And all thanks to the Nigerian company S&T SNAIL PRODUCTION specializing in the cultivation of snails, which, in an attempt to produce a product of precise processing of snails – the snail mucus, after acquiring the well-known specialized equipment for the secretion of snail mucus “Mucus pro” from the world brand of the same name, copied the drawings and actually declassified the patented technology snail mucus secretion “Mucus Professional”, has attempted to establish a handicraft production of equipment for the production of snail mucus under its own brand.

By the way, the scammers failed to reproduce the original to the end. It was not possible to completely produce the finished original product of the “Mucus pro” class on fake equipment of the Nigerian company, the pirated snail mucus did not reach the purity of the original substance, the preservation of peptide bonds in the product and, as a result, achieve the main control indicators of the finished substance. It will be possible to sell pirated copies of equipment only within the country and only to unqualified specialists!

By violating international copyright and patents that protect the equipment of a world manufacturer, the Nigerian company S&T SNAIL PRODUCTION has come to the attention not only of the law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Nigeria and the embassies of many countries, but also of Interpol and the WTO. The owner of the trade mark “Mucus pro” and the developer of the equipment, the company Bila M, has already conducted an expert assessment of the damages from plagiarism caused by the side of S&T SNAIL PRODUCTION as of January 2023, the damage assessed at more than 100,000 US dollars, not including compensation for damage caused to intellectual property and the amount of losses will only increase, the amount of fines and compensation may exceed half a million dollars. The criminal proceedings against S&T SNAIL PRODUCTION also include the name of a citizen of Nigeria, Theocracy Edafe, who will soon be subject to international economic sanctions.

Taking into account the narrowness of the natural snail mucus market and the limited players in the world market  and the main players are the companies of the ACTA member countries – all snail mucus producers from the Federal Republic of Nigeria fell under the sanctions. Global buyers, and these are mainly serious and reputable manufacturers of cosmetics, dietary supplements and medicines made from snail mucus, obviously will not understand the intricacies of the copyright infringement scandal by one company S&T SNAIL PRODUCTION, but simply refuse to import a narrow product – the snail mucus from the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a whole! The next stage: the pirates face a long arbitration process at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

By the way, only the market of cosmetic products with snail mucus is estimated at 555.9 million US dollars and demonstrates an annual growth rate of 10.4%, by 2030 it will reach 1232.7 million US dollars. The market for the production of the raw material itself – natural snail mucus, has an average annual growth of more than 18% and is gradually reaching the industrial scale of snail processing on all continents.

How much pirated equipment “Mucus pro” was sold and whether there were facts of copying other equipment of the manufacturer (for example, Bulova freeze dryers, also purchased by a pirate company) will be established during the investigation, but buyers with world-famous names, ACTA member countries do not want to risk their image and have already refused from buying recycled products from all over Nigeria to being sanctioned ourselves. In the civilized world, it is obscene and dangerous to cooperate and buy products from companies using pirated products, whether raw materials, equipment or technology.

The same applies to certification, not one accredited laboratory conducting chromatographic analysis of snail mucus, and there are no more than two dozen of them in the world, will not want to certify this product from the Republic of Nigeria.

A civilized market requires compliance with the rules of the game, and international sanctions, in this case, will not become selective, because it is easier not to buy from an entire country than to find out if potential sellers are involved in a scandal…

This is a vivid example of a confederation of society and global independent manufacturers in the fight against piracy in the civilized world.

Editor’s note: It’s unfortunate that a growing, booming and very promising value-added industry is being put at risk for the entire country by one shady company. We hope that the conflict will be resolved and the Republic of Nigeria will eventually become an exporter in this sector of the economy. 

In the photo: a pirate painstakingly made a rather complex product – natural snail slime, on a counterfeit device S&T Filica 1, which the pirate company S&T SNAIL PRODUCTION stole from Mucus Pro. Copying (not completely) the Mucus Pro device. Unfortunately, today it is impossible to sell such snail slime outside Nigeria.