A Couple Grows a French Delicacy in Zhmerynka

It takes a lot of money and effort to set up a snail farm. One needs to arrange greenhouses, select snail and set appropriate humidity and temperature. The idea to create a snail farm came to Valentina at the end of her maternity leave, writes “Agro-Center” with a reference to Vinnytsia.info.

Mediterranean snails of the Helicidae family, the Helix (Aspersa Maxima) for the farm were bought in Lviv. They have all the relevant documents and certificates.

“I was looking for a fun job. I came across a snail farm franchise on the Internet, but owners wanted 100,000 euros for it, which is a lot of money, so it wasn’t an option. Snails are a popular business in Europe bur not so much in our country. We decided to start from scratch, on our own,”

said Valentina.

Snails grow under wooden panels, because they like shade and moisture. Snail eat turnips and fodder. In two weeks, farmers will begin to collect them. This will be the first crop to be sold because the previous one was used for breeding.

“Today, there are 2-6 tons of snails on the farm. We are teaming up with all snail farmers in Ukraine to create a big batch. The larger the batch, the greater the price. It is necessary to have at least 20 tons of snails to export the product independently. The delicacy is mostly bought by France and Spain,”

explained the entrepreneur.

The farmer said that during the cold season adult snails are in the refrigerator, in a state of anabiosis. They start waking up starting from February 20th, and lay caviar in mid-March. The caviar is collected until the end of May.

In nature, the snail lives during one season. After procreating, about 70% of snails die.