Snail slime ensures boom time for those working in the field

Plenty of benefits: Kitpong speaking to the media about snail slime serum production at his farm in Nakhon Nayok province. (Below) Local Thai brand Acha Snail Serum boxes at the Acha Snail Park and (below right) The type of snail being used for serum production at the Acha Snail Park. — AFP

Nakhon Nayok (Thailand): Giant snails inch across a plate of pumpkin and cucumber in central Thailand, an “organic” diet to tease the prized collagen-rich mucus from the molluscs, which to some cosmetic firms are now more valuable than gold.

The snails at Phatinisiri Thangkeaw’s farm were once the scourge of rice farmers, loathed for eating the buds of new crops.