France loves its frogs’ legs. But for Indonesia and Vietnam, that’s becoming a problem

In Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, grass frogs are allowed to be caught and killed under certain conditions between the end of February and April, the time in which they come to the ponds to reproduce.

However, France imports more than 2,500 tonnes of frogs’ legs from abroad every year to satisfy demand. The dish is also popular in Belgium.

But hungry frog-eaters in Europe are causing trouble in supplier countries. Indonesia is the largest exporter of frogs’ legs, and Europe’s appetite for the delicacy not only threatens the population of rare frog species, but also the balance of ecosystems.

“The trade in frog legs is hardly regulated or monitored by the government,” said amphibian specialist Ganjar Cahyadi, curator of the zoology museum in the city of Bandung on Java island.

There is no official data on the number of wild frogs in the archipelago nation, he said. “We don’t know how many frogs are exported and how many remain in the wild.”

The situation is similar in Vietnam, another major exporter of the amphibians. The number of frogs in the country has declined significantly in recent decades, said Mai Nguyen of the animal welfare organisation Humane Society International.

“When I was a child living in the countryside, it was easy to see and catch frogs. But today – almost 40 years later – it’s hard to even find wild frogs,” she says. However, the government has no plans to limit the sale or export of the animals.

The rainforests of Southeast Asia, and especially in Indonesia, are known for their great biodiversity. New species continue to be discovered there frequently.

But the widespread hunting of frogs may wipe out entire species before scientists even find them, said Cahyadi, adding that more urgently needs to be done for research and, above all, for the protection of the animals.

Frogs are both prey and hunters, making them a critical part of the food chain. When it comes to reducing the population of insects such as grasshoppers and mosquitoes, the amphibians are indispensable.

“Frogs are natural insecticides. They eat insects that can cause problems for agriculture and public health,” Cahyadi said. “Without frogs, we would have to use more chemicals to control these insects.”

This would not only be detrimental to the environment, but also to people’s health.

One solution could be to focus on breeding frogs for export instead of hunting them, Cahyadi said. This would also benefit the local economy and create jobs.

French fishmonger Patrick Francois came up with a similar idea 13 years ago. He established what was probably the first frog farm in France, in the southern village of Pierrelatte near the Provence region.

“I saw that people were trying to produce more and more locally. That’s why I threw myself into it,” said Francois, who now breeds frogs.

His project was made possible with a special frog species that scientists developed. While frogs only eat moving animals, these frogs also eat things that do not move.

From when they are born to when they are killed, the frogs spend their time in some of the hundred or so tanks in Francois’ breeding hall, which is filled with the sound of water and the loud croaking of the male frogs.

Francois also has environmental goals in mind, when he considers the frozen imported frogs’ legs from Southeast Asia or frogs imported alive from Turkey. “The very fact that no frogs are taken from the wild,” he said.

He now supplies frog legs to about a dozen upmarket customers. “No more, because our production is not enormous either.”

Meanwhile, a handful of other breeders in France have followed suit and set up frog farms. The Agriculture Ministry wrote in 2019 that the breeders produced about 10 tonnes of frog legs a year, and estimated that it could be significantly more in the future.

Even so, France is still only likely to supply a fraction of the nation’s total annual consumption for the foreseeable future.