A snail farm in Vendée since 1989
It was in 1989 that Sébastien and Olivier’s father, Jean-Paul Royer, founded "Maison Royer", specialising in the production and farming of gastropods. «It was a bit crazy, but he launched into a market that wasn’t really established: snail egg caviar,» recalls Sébastien, one of the two sons now at the head of the family business. He, and later his brother Olivier, joined their parents in the early 90s. At the time, “Maison Royer” was based in Saint-Paul-en-Pareds, near Les Herbiers in the Vendée.
Snail farming in tune with nature
Snail reproduction
Maison Royer is equipped with a fully automated breeding building. After a period of hibernation, breeding snails are placed there in early January to mate and lay eggs until March.
Our little shelled gastropods are hermaphrodites, meaning they can play the role of either male or female. Snails lay up to 70 eggs, which is why every year, more than 1.5 million snails are born in RoyeR Cosmétique's nurseries!
Fattening the young snails
In March the young snails are placed in the nursery, where they grow until May.
They are then released into 6,000 m² of fattening pens fitted with windbreak netting to protect them from birds and an electric fence to stop our friends from wandering off.
They grow there until they reach adulthood (bordered snail), roughly until August.
Extracting the snail slime
The snail slime extraction stage takes place in summer, once the snails are adults and have spent several months in the fattening pens. At Royer Cosmétique, we have developed a new, animal-friendly method for extracting snail slime, respectful of the animal. This unique process involves gently tickling the snail, which allows us to collect the animal's secretion while respecting it.
This technique, harmless to the animal also earned us Ecocert certification! Rest assured that although we work with fresh slime, it is extracted under a controlled atmosphere to prevent any contamination, before being double-filtered to 100 µm. These various stages of the extraction process remove any potential bacteria, without diminishing the properties of the raw material!
Did you know?
Maison Royer farm is committed to being certified Organic Farming to guarantee excellent product quality. Our farm complies with Ecocert standards.