Processing bush meat can make you a millionaire. This is how…

Popular reggae music icon, Bob Marley in his song, ‘Rat Race’ sang: “In the abundance of waters, the fool is thirsty”. That is an indirect way of telling the discerning mind that anyone can leverage what his environment provides to be whatever his mind can focus on.

Perhaps, you are dreaming of making it, but find yourself somewhere off the klieg lights of the city, do not worry, there is so much the hinterland is offering to people. Of course, there are two sides of every coin, and so is life.

The truth is that there is so much money to be made from processing bush meat, which is readily available in the interior locations of town, and those who know the intricacies are regularly smiling to the banks. If you are will to take it a notch higher, you certainly would make more!

What constitutes bush meat? Bush meat is a term used to describe all manners of game killed in the wild for culinary purposes. They range from animals in the class of mollusks (snails) to reptiles (snakes and crocodiles) to mammals (grass cutters, antelopes and monkeys) amongst others. Bush meat has increasingly become a status symbol amongst the rich for its dietary qualities.

As the world continues to go organic, people who have penchant for healthy meals, prefer to eat varieties of games killed in the wild, which are seen as organically fortified, considering that their meals are acquired naturally.

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The scientific belief is that their protein and fat are healthier and that is pushing up demands amongst the rich for protein sources from this direction, making it a clear source of income for the success-driven mind, who is ready to fulfill this essential need for the rich, considering that it is 300% more expensive than the cost of regular protein sources such as chicken, beef or mutton. For someone who desires to tap into the opportunities in this business, the following key elements are important:

1. Sourcing your bush meat: Bush meat species live in the wild, so the natural habitat to obtain them is the hinterland, where there are active hunting activities going on. You must establish contacts that are reliable to cut off as many middle men as possible as this would reduce the costs for you. You must also clearly determine the scope of animals you would be dealing on, considering that there are birds, snails, snakes and mammals. Once this is sorted out, you must create a partnership that ensures regular supply to you whenever games are available.
2. Determining preservation options: How to preserve the animals is usually a critical aspect of the task. The various species have different perseveration options, but as a rule, one must have deep freezers, where they are stored, immediately after cleaning and gutting the animals after obtaining them from the wild. From the freezers, one can conveniently continue the process of preserving them by either smoking them, which gives them that appetizing taste, the rich desire or freezing them for supply to big restaurants in the cities. While drying in the oven is popular, the market tends to prefer wood-smoked types for animals such as grass cutter, antelopes and snakes. But snails are usually preferred frozen. Some are however processed dry for exports and they all meet the culinary demands as expected.

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3. Marketing: Although marketing opportunities are huge, someone getting involved in this business must carry out a survey of places where there is demand for game animals. Hotels and restaurants are usually a big source of orders, but some super markets in highbrow residential areas are also beginning to look out for such opportunities as the rich usually drive in to order them. However, the huge market lies in foreign lands. Nigerians who live in such countries, are direly in need of such rare delicacies which they are missing.