The growth potential for a nation of snail farmers is enormous. Photo / NZME
The growth potential for a nation of snail farmers is enormous. Photo / NZME
OPINION
With the world believing we're now a nation of snail eaters, thanks to Australian breakfast television, we need to move quickly to grasp an opportunity.
Because snails are big business. In France, about 30,000 tonnes of snails are consumed each year. A good portion by tourists looking for aunique culinary experience.
French snail farmers are failing to meet demand. Only 5-10 per cent of the snails eaten in bistros and brasseries are harvested locally. The rest are imported from Eastern Europe and North Africa.
We can do better than them. Due to our climate and high rainfall, which give us our comparative advantage, we can grow snails more efficiently than any Polish snail farmer.
So I propose we establish a new co-operative snail farming company with startup money from central government and finance from one of the Australian-owned banks.
Anyone in New Zealand with a section and garden would be eligible to join the co-operative, on the condition they promise to guarantee delivery of snails exclusively to the co-operative.
A network of snail trucks would be needed to drive the country, picking up snails in special containers left in people's letter boxes.
Kids, beneficiaries, older people, solo parents, could all be going out at night with a torch after rain to harvest the common garden snail, helix aspersa.
Once collected, the live snails could be delivered to a new snail housing terminal at Northport in Whangārei. Once there, the snails would be put into shipping containers with specially fitted stacked trays.
Farmed snails at an escargot farm in the South of France Photo / NZME
As snails need to be purged of toxins (from the potentially poisonous vegetation they've been eating in gardens), upon collection, they would be fed only milk powder. This would serve the additional purpose of fattening them up on their 50-day boat journey to Europe.
However, as the best chefs recommend that snails should not be fed 10-12 days before eating, the milk powder would run out a week before arriving. Only a small percentage of snails would die en route.
The only problem is, our free-trade negotiations with the EU need to be reopened so we can secure access for New Zealand snails to European markets. We can be confident, due to surprise at the request, they'll go along with this.
We, of course, will agree not to call our snails escargot.
The co-operative will need a brand name, however. Adapting the scientific Latin name of common snail breeds, I suggest Helixia.
Our snails would be known as Helixia snails. This brand name, with a Māori-inspired spiral logo, would appear on boxes of live snails available in French supermarkets and sold direct to restaurants.
The name, which sounds similar to elixir (as in "elixir of life"), would help brand our snails as a high-quality health food for the 21st century.
Snail meat is high in protein and Omega-3 fatty acids, as well as rich in magnesium, niacin, selenium and iron.
France would only be the start, because it's a misconception that only the French eat snails. They're eaten in many other European, African and South Asian countries.
The growth potential for a nation of heliciculturists (snail farmers) is enormous. But we need to move quickly because other countries are developing their snail farm technology and infrastructure.
To support the backyard snail-growing industry, the Government should fund our best agricultural scientists to breed a larger super-snail with higher protein content.
We'll also need a snail that grows faster than any other snail has grown before.
With a Kiwi-developed and patented super-snail, we could feed the world.
