Heliciculture as a tool for rural development in Southern Transylvania

Gheoca, Voichita and Oprean, Letitia: Heliciculture as a tool for rural development in Southern Transylvania. Review on agriculture and rural development, (1) 1. pp. 249-254. (2012)

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Abstract

In Romania there is no tradition as regards the consumption of snails. After several decades of land snails populations’ exploitation for international trade, in the last decade the farming of edible snails has evolved in Romania. The expansion of this practice was encouraged by the SAPARD Program and several foreign companies, promising a quick and easily obtained benefit. About 650 snail farms were established in Romania between the years 2004-2008, most of them using the Italian method, with Helix aspersa in pastures. However, this method had proved its deficiency in the given environmental conditions, leading to high mortality rates. An autochthonous method was developed using H. pomatia, applied by farmers organized in a cooperative, and which have invested in their own processing factory in southern Transylvania, aiming to obtain valuable biologic products. Both the individual farmers and the cooperative were not able to sustain the losses registered during the first years, and find a market for their products, a situation that lead to the collapse of heliciculture in Romania. Despite the unfortunate experience, this new agricultural activity has the potential of a profitable practice in Romania, and especially in Transylvania, not just due to the demand of the European market, but also to the climatic conditions, which make possible the snail farming. Choosing the appropriate technology and species could allow the development of profitable businesses in the rural areas, which could serve as alternative to the exploitation of Helix pomatia natural populations.

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