Thieves have stolen snails worth €90,000 (£79,000; $104,000) from a farm in northern France that supplies gourmet restaurants.
L’Escargot Des Grands Crus in Bouzy, near Reims, said it had had its entire stock of fresh and frozen snails stolen, a “real blow” ahead of the Christmas season.
Thieves broke into the farm overnight on Monday, cutting a border fence before breaking into the farm buildings, but a report was not filed with police until the end of the week, the Franceinfo news site reported.
Officials are now following the lead, as the farm tries to restock to meet year-end customer demand.
Edible snails, or snails, are a French delicacy, usually cooked in garlic butter or wine before being removed from their shell.
Producers in France see an increase in sales around December, as people pay to buy this product during the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
“This is definitely not the kind of post we plan to write as the holidays approach,” L’Escargot Des Grands Crus wrote in a statement announcing the theft on Thursday.
He described the incident as “a shock, a misunderstanding and a real blow to the entire team” and added: “We are doing everything we can to replenish our stock to satisfy you during the holidays.”
The farm has supplied restaurants, including Michelin-starred Les Crayères de Reims, as well as delicatessens and private clients, Franceinfo reports.
Photos of the farm after the theft show shelves and refrigerators almost completely free of snail products.
“A whole section of finished products was stolen from the store and the stock of raw materials from my laboratory,” Jean-Mathieu Dauvergne, director of the farm, told the news site.
“It was my end-of-year stock… We had just the right amount to spend the holidays without worries.”
