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Bulgarian snails set the pace for swift economic recovery

by Nick Iliev

Global economic crunch? An exotic and relatively new Bulgarian industry dating less than a decade since its establishment, doesn't think so, in fact, they have shown the way for a swift economic recovery.

Sadovets, a village in the Municipality of Pleven, is in the lucrative business of harvesting snails in industrial quantities and then exporting them mainly to... yes you've guessed it, France. Snail cultivation has since proven to be a very successful alternative to conventional agriculture.

For this year alone, Sadovets is responsible for the export of 900 tons of snails, and in spite of the global crisis "snail farms are germinating all over the place" and "their number is expected to increase several times over," Bulgarian National Radio reported on October 7 2009.

One of the farms in Sadovets, managed by Stancho Totov, covers five ha, has a "complete cycle of production", and employs permanently 25 staff, while in the summer the number increases to 75 employees.

The produce is designated exclusively for export to Western Europe, most of which is shipped to France, with Italy and Spain also being prominent customers.

"We expect to produce between 60 and 70 tons of snails in this farm alone in 2009," Totov told Bulgarian National Television (BNT). "In previous years we've reached up to a hundred tons, but the crunch has had an effect on us as well," he said.

Farmers say that this year the impact of stagnation was felt, as in times of crisis people tend to switch away from food branded as a "delicacy". However, there is recent trend on the domestic market of growing demand for the food. Farmers are expected to receive European Union subsidies under European programmes for the development of rural regions.

"Snails are an ancient form of food, their meat is light, delicious, ideal for dieting. Most importantly, a lot of accent is put in the food's aphrodisiac properties," said Totov, quoted by BNT.

The Sofia Echo