Snail farming, a fast-growing business

A very interesting fact to take into account snail breeders: 300 000 tons of snail meat is consumed per year around the world.

The first consumer worldwide is France with 400 000 tons, followed by the emerging markets of Japan and the United States.

However, the problem is that the major producers as France, Greece, Italy and Spain are not able to satisfy the demands of other emerging markets as Mexico and Peru where the consumption of snail-based dishes is increasing.


So, what are they doing to satisfy the demand?

In Spain they are doing a research project to increase their annual snail harvest. They are working with the Helix aspersa specie (the most popular in Spain), they are scattering baby snail parcels of 4mm, where the vegetal covering gives shelter to the snail and provides conditions similar to its natural habitat.

Young fish are fed with fodder, which allows getting fast and uniform cultivations. Fodder increases the available useful surface of the parcels, which allows a great increase of the young density.

The growing and fattening phase combines supplying and fodder; and at the end the baby snails do not receive any more fodder and not consume the existing resources until the end of the cycle.

This method achieves 2 fattening cycles of 300 snails per 10 square feet (above the normal), preventing the diseases and problems related to the intensive system. In commercial terms, this means snail producers can adjust the raising cycles to the market high seasons and getting high production and prices for the sale.

Please take note this method was designed especially for the geographic and climatic conditions of Andalucía in Spain.

Source: ABC.es

Raising snails. Part II

What snails are good for?

Snails have a great culinary value. When eating it, we can divide it in two parts:

- Frontal part: Formed by head and foot (but also the anus and rectum).

- Back part: Formed by the albumin gland and the hepatic pancreas.
The frontal part is more edible than the back, while this one ahs a higher nutritive value.

Snails are low fat, thus in calories too. It is rich in minerals as calcium, magnesium, iodine; and vitamin C.

It is also used in the cosmetic industry and as curative element for respiratory problems. It is believed that these two actions are sustained by the properties of the snail’s slime.

They are edible all the snails from the Helix genre.

There are more snails raise in captivity than wild snails.

The country that consume snails the most in Europe is France.