By Dan.
Business reporter.
The image is from the same source.
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The producers of caviar say sales have rebounded strongly.
The world's caviar producers didn't look good when high-end restaurants closed during the Covid lockdowns.
You might think that it spelled disaster for the sellers of expensive fish eggs if the events were canceled and cruise liners weren't able to leave port.
The reality has been very different. The well-heeled are increasingly eating their caviar at home, and online sales are booming.
The general manager of Italy's Agroittica Lombarda, Europe, says that people in lock down spent their money on food and entertainment.
But what is it? It is the salt-cured eggs of fish. The industry used to be centered on wild stocks in the Caspian Sea, which is now surrounded by Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan.
The global sale of almost all wild caviar from the sea was banned in 2006 due to severe overfishing in the Caspian. This is still enforced by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The image is from the same source.
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One of the oldest families of fish are the stur ters.
The ban led to a growth in the farming of sturgeon around the world. Almost all of the caviar sold legally worldwide is from farms.
According to the most recent figures from Kontali, the global farmed sturgeon industry was worth 750m in 2019. The European Union estimated that the global volume of caviar was over 400 tonnes.
Ms Sora says that sales doubled in the US last year.
The largest caviar producer in the country said that its sales were up 10% in the year. At the end of 2020, one of the two producers, Exmoor Caviar, sold out of all of its stock.
Kontali analyst, Maren Boe, says that online sales have been the saving grace for producers since the arrival of the coronaviruses.
She says that by selling smaller tins of caviar in shops and online, producers have been able to sell to consumers looking to increase everyday luxury by buying caviar to consume at home.
The image is from Agroittica Lombarda.
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There are more than 150 sturgeon ponds at the site.
Eugene says that the new website helped boost online sales by 60 percent last year. He thinks that people want to eat it more often.
He thinks the market will be less of an occasional product for holidays and more of something that's bought regularly.
Ms Sora says that producers in the US and Europe have benefited from less exports from China. There might have been some staff shortages caused by the Pandemic, but China's domestic consumption of caviar has increased at the same time.
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Why is it so expensive? The cheapest tin at Exmoor is only 10 grams, which is less than a cup of tea. The most expensive item is a kilogram.
The high cost is due to the fact that females take a long time to reach egg-laying maturity. This takes between four and five years for the main species. The females don't start laying eggs until they are 14 years old for the white sturgeon.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals argue that farming fish in an artificially confined space is cruel. The female sturgeons are killed before their eggs are taken.
Peta's senior PR coordinators says thatCaviar is something no one needs. On fish farms, the sturgeons are smashed together to swim in crowded, barren tanks or areas polluted with the waste from thousands of fish.
The welfare of the fish has to be the main priority of the industry, as they counter that the meat is also sold for eating.
Despite the recent boom, there is no certainty that demand for the expensive premium product will continue to rise because of economic uncertainty, according to the chief executive of Exmoor.
He says that disposable income is likely to be less in the UK. A lot of people in the world can't justify spending 20 bucks on a tin.
"We've been on an upward trajectory, but I think that that's from the marketing perspective, and from building customers who've come back to buy the product again."
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Kenneth is cautious about the future of the business.
Mr Fernandez expects growth to continue to grow rapidly, and the company plans to acquire a further 240 acres of land to expand its farms.
"We'll roll up another five or 15 farms over the next three to four years and take the company public," says Mr Fernandez. "This is going to be a hot sector for the next five to 10 years."
The plans for the future are more high tech, and it has filed a patent for the development of lab-grown caviar from sturgeon stem cells. This technology is being developed for other fish.
"We believe we can produce the egg we need within 40 days," says Mr. Benning. If we had more demand, we could meet it quickly.
The image is from Exmoor.
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It is a popular starter in expensive restaurants.
In a room that is less than 300 square meters, we can produce more caviar than the entire global production. If you can provide the products, it's the same genetic material and it doesn't involve the captivity or killing of an animal.
If everything goes to plan, Exmoor will launch its cell-cultivated caviar in 2023.
Would this mean the end of the industry? Mr. Benning doesn't think so. He says that people will always buy natural rather than lab-grown products.
