Thieves have stolen almost 1,000 pounds of escargot worth more than $100,000 from a family-run snail farm, wiping out a year’s stock just as holiday demand hits, according to The New York Times. Inès Dauvergne, 20, said that her father arrived at their L’Escargot des Grands Crus business in Bouzy, near Reims, in Northeastern France, to find doors forced open, drawers rifled, and fridges almost bare. About 990 pounds of fresh and frozen snails were gone, the NYT reported. Police are still hunting the rustlers, and the family is convinced the burglars knew precisely what they were taking and when to strike, targeting the stock days before peak orders. “Escargot is a quite rare dish. It is pricey and is usually served for Christmas or big events,” Dauvergne said. With snails taking around a year to mature, there is no chance of replacing the missing stock in time for Christmas, when escargot is a pricey festive staple. The Dauvergnes are part of a tiny, hard-hit community of heliciculture farms already squeezed by foreign competition and tough regulations. Fellow snail farmers have offered to sell part of their own harvest to help the Dauvergnes fulfill contracts.
Read it at New York Times
