Russian frogs leg it to France

Farmers say frogs are the ultimate gourmet food

A new export delicacy is set to take off in southern Russia - frogs' legs.

And in a "coals-to-Newcastle" twist, farmers are hoping to move in to the French market.

The French import thousands of tonnes of frogs' legs every year.

Zero cholesterol, bags of protein, far tastier than beef or pork

Russian TV describing frogs' legs

Despite large-scale breeding projects, France cannot meet the demand itself.

Its own frog population has been ravaged by over-hunting and pollution from insecticides.

Russian TV says farmers in southern Russia are optimistic about cashing in on this international market.

It says frogs' legs are the diet-conscious gourmet's dream - "zero cholesterol, bags of protein and far tastier than beef or pork".

Frogs are not normally part of the Cossack diet

The project is still in its infancy, but frogs' legs from a farm in Russia's Kuban area are already on sale in restaurants in Moscow and St Petersburg.

And the Russians have an eye to the future.

At present the frogs are caught in the wild. Next year the management plans to open a breeding farm.

The international frog trade has come in for harsh criticism for both dangerously diminishing frog populations and increasing the use of pesticides.

Frogs play an important role in biological control: they eat flying insects such as locusts and mosquitoes. One frog eats 150 mosquitoes a day.

Some Russians have been setting an example

Several developing countries have banned the export of frog's legs since farmers found they had to use more pesticides without them. Malaria and other insect-borne diseases also spread.

Meanwhile, back in the Kuban, in Cossack country, the new export industry has an image problem. The farm chairman is one of the few who has ever eaten frogs legs himself.

"Cossacks don't eat things like that," he said.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages