Now he has over 300,000 worker snails in twelve farms in different parts of France. However, the consumption of the little white pearls has spread throughout Europe and beyond during the past decade. The following is an extract from the book More and more people are looking at heliciculture — that's breeding snails to you and me — as a way to switch careers into agriculture. If you get more snails they will lay more eggs. by Derek Cooper. “The story begins, as many good stories have done, in distant Tibet, an unlikely Shangri-La, you may think, for the discovery of anything more recherché than curdled yak’s milk. That was 7 years ago, and the use of snail caviar has increased significantly since then. © Copyright Dorset Snails Ltd 2020, All Rights Reserved. I ate them, Alain told us, and I think immediately zees is fantastique. But it was here five years ago in a remote lamasery that M. Chatillon, with a mind tuned to the perception of the previously unperceived, watched as villagers deposited their offerings in the lap of a gilded Buddha. Among the oblations was a bowl of what looked like pinky-beige opalescent pearls. Snail Farming: How to Start a Lucrative Snail Farming Business and Make Huge Profits by Francis Nwokike Snail farming (also known as heliciculture ) is another lucrative business that is steadily growing as the commodity is in high demand across the country and beyond all thanks to the nutritious value the gastropod carry. Back in Rennes, Alain spent five years experimenting until he found the perfect gastropod, the indigenous petit gris. The best snail for caviar is the Helix Aspersa Maxima (gros gris) which, fortunately was the species we already bred. During the Spring of 2017 we decided to create a special breeding room using Helix Aspersa Maxima solely for the purpose of caviar production. Not surprisingly this gained our interest in the product, particularly as with our indoor farming system we are able to produce snail eggs (caviar) on a weekly basis throughout the year. If you are farming smaller snails, there's a max of 6 snails per square meter. There’s a new trend in the country. It is a revelation. As snail farmers we first became aware that snail eggs were being used in gastronomy in 2010, more so at that time in France. Snail Eggs and Samphire Getting more snails than this will lead to overpopulation and an unhealthy snail population. Having the system in place for breeding snails it was a simple enough process to increase our production in order to give an excess of eggs to be sold as caviar. But snail farming is not for everyone, as Carla Passino reports. When no one was looking, M. Chatillon put a finger in the bowl and conveyed two of the small globules to his mouth. The annual production of one snail, he claims, is only a hundred eggs, which makes them as expensive as the finest Beluga caviar”. If raising larger snails, you'll need at least 1 square meter for each snail. The best snail for caviar is the Helix Aspersa Maxima (gros gris) which, fortunately was the species we already bred. Not surprisingly this gained our interest in the product, particularly as with our indoor farming system we are able to produce snail eggs (caviar) on a weekly basis throughout the year. 0 items | Free delivery on orders £50 and over | £4.95 on orders £25 and over | £9.95 on orders under £25. Or something like that. Growing numbers of people are leaving their careers behind to take up snail farming. And thus was the secret of snail eggs brought back from the land of eternal snows. Get enough snails for the size of your farm.