Nguyen Ngoc Hong, from the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang, says she hunts for apple snails in nearby paddy fields and canals whenever she has the time.

Local traders are willing to pay VND14,000 for a kilogram of snails with the shell removed, Hong says.

Elsewhere in Bac Lieu, the pests have also become sought-after as traders even pay higher: VND19,000 per kilogram.

After sourcing a huge amount of the snails, traders will sell them to facilities in Long My District.

The apple snail, or golden snail, a serious threat to rice production and the native ecosystem, has suddenly become sought-after in the Mekong Delta, with traders offering high payments to stockpile large amounts of the pests from local farmers.

Vo Nhu Y, deputy chairman of the local government of Ninh Quoi A, said it has been reported that the snails will be sold to China.

“But the speculation remains unverified,” he added.

Y said people in his commune have collected as many as 1 ton of snails to sell to traders every day.

Meanwhile, Le Hong Viet, deputy chief of the economic bureau of Long My District, said traders ship the products to facilities in Ho Chi Minh City instead of China.

It is a common trick of foreign traders, especially Chinese, to create false demand for agricultural products by offering high buying prices and then to abruptly stop buying the product.

Chinese traders used to hunt for weird products like apple snails, leeches, and dry litchi and cashew leaves.

The high wages offered for the snails have spurred some local farmers to  raise them instead of hunting them from nature, thus causing severe damage to the local ecosystem and crops.

There have been cases in which Vietnamese farmers raised leeches and apple snails or killed cashew and litchi trees with the sole purpose of selling the natural goods to Chinese traders.

But officials in both Hau Giang and Bac Lieu confirmed that no such cases have been detected so far with the latest apple snail hunt.

They also ordered relevant agencies to remind farmers that they are prohibited from raising the pests.