Caviar is a highly priced fish derived product popular all over the world. It is the non-fertilized Sturgeon roe either salt cured, fresh or pasteurized and to command such high prices the sturgeon has to come from Caspian Sea or Black Sea. Russian caviar was once the world standard but the self-imposed ban by this country against harvesting the roe, has spurred development of caviar substitutes from other fish species like Salmon, Steelhead, Trout, White Fish etc. Beluga, Sterlet, Osserta and Sevruga caviars still rule the roost. The rim countries of Caspian Sea viz, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Azerbaijan have access to genuine caviar and with Russians not in this business any more, Iran and Azerbaijan have become the major source of this precious food material. Recently there has been a shift in the dynamics of caviar production with the US entering the field with its own version of this product harvested predominantly from the southern coastal waters. Here is the developing story of caviar in the US.
"Global efforts to all but ban the international trade of caviar from the Caspian Sea, where overfishing and pollution have depleted sturgeon populations, have opened enormous opportunities for affordable substitutes from unlikely places in America. Even landlocked Montana, North Dakota and Oklahoma have thriving markets based on wild river fish. "I think any chef or any food person with a conscience is only eating domestic or farmed caviar," said Mitchell Davis, executive vice president of the James Beard Foundation. The world has come to have a taste for the growing American market of caviar and fish roe. Between 2001 and 2010, annual exports of white sturgeon, shovelnose sturgeon (also called hackleback) and paddlefish roe increased to about 37,712 pounds from roughly 5,214 pounds, with a majority of wild origin, according to the American branch of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Seventy percent of the total caviar and roe exported from the United States in 2010 went to countries in the European Union, Ukraine and Japan. Domestically, there has also been a rise in interest in both wild and sustainably farmed caviar, from restaurateurs wanting local sources for interesting foods and from adventurous young consumers".
The success story of US entrepreneurship can be gauged by the fact that this country producing caviar from species like bowfin fish is exporting more than 75% of its production to countries like Europe, Ukraine and Japan! Considering that the supply of original Beluga caviar is dwindling fast and modern generation youngsters would never have tasted this product in their life, new products from other species are likely to be more and more popular among them. Besides, the price factor also makes a big difference in the purchasing decision of new generation consumers. If Russian caviar commands prices as high as $500 per oz, same type of products from other fish species can be available at less than $30 per oz. Caviar is preferred in its fresh form and both salt cured and pasteurized versions are not easily accepted by those swearing by the supreme flavor of fresh caviar. Incidentally even the FDA of the US does not accept any roe other than that originating from Sturgeon to be called caviar but allows others by their source of origin, like salmon caviar, bowfin caviar etc. Is it not amazing that a product like caviar which is after all used as a garnish or spread can command such high prices and there are wealthy consumers prepared to shell out such astronomical sums for such little pleasures? Probably the pricing incongruities has spawned an entirely new industry capitalizing in the name of caviar, offering similar products without sacrificing the inherent nutritional value of fish eggs per se that has made it possible for average consumers to patronize them.
V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
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