French snail producers seek protection against east European imports

They may be the classic French delicacy - served up with garlic, parsley and butter - but most of the snails in the country's restaurants and supermarkets have actually been plucked from the fields and roadsides of eastern Europe, say producers.

Now, French snail farmers have written to the agriculture ministry demanding a boost for their home-grown industry and clearer labelling on pre-packed "Burgundy snails" to show which ones come from France and which do not.

Up to 95 per cent of them sold in France are actually the cheaper and fatter varieties gathered from as far afield as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and even Turkey, six French snail farmers' federations said.

"It's a French culinary speciality and it's part of our country's reputation, so we should be promoting our own snails," said senator Yves Detraigne, who is backing the campaign.

The snail campaigners have had to face up to one uncomfortable truth - that many gourmands prefer the plant-fattened giants slithering about in the plains of eastern Europe to the smaller ones produced in French farms.

"We understand consumers may prefer snails from central and eastern Europe, but we cannot accept they eat them unknowingly," the farmers wrote.

The common label "Burgundy snails" does not refer to the territory in central France, but to a large white variety of edible land snail common across Europe.