They might weigh a most of 500 grammes (one pound) and solely develop to 10 centimetres (4 inches), however the farming of big snails is proving to be massive enterprise within the Ivory Coast.
Thought of a delicacy for his or her tasty flesh, the large snails are additionally used to make cosmetics manufactured from their slime and shells.
However almost 90 p.c of the West African nation’s forests have disappeared during the last 60 years, one thing which, along with the widespread use of pesticides, has decimated wild snails’ pure habitat.
Most forest has been misplaced to agricultural manufacturing on the planet’s prime producer of cocoa – to the detriment of the creatures that naturally thrive in a sizzling, humid setting.
As wild snail numbers have steadily fallen, farms that concentrate on breeding them have more and more sprung up. There are some 1,500 within the humid south alone.
A well-liked appetiser within the Ivory Coast, the snails are bred on farms resembling considered one of many within the city of Azaguie, some 40km (25 miles) north of the business capital, Abidjan.
Inside some 10 brick and cement containers topped with mesh lids is a layer of earth and one other of leaves.
Between the 2 slither hundreds of snails, juveniles and breeders – some a lot bigger than these present in Europe.
The gastropods are watered and fed each two days.
