• IDENTIFICATION
• LEGAL CLUSTERS
• GEOGRAPHIC CLUSTERS
• TRADE CLUSTERS
• ENVIRONMENT CLUSTERS
• OTHER FACTORS

I. Identification

1. The Issue

2. Description

Partial map of Russia, Volga river and Caspian Sea.

• BELUGA
  The Beluga Sturgeon is the most rare of the three varieties from the Caspian Sea. It can live 100 years, grow to 30 feet in length, and weigh as much as 1,800 pounds. The female requires 20 years to mature and begin producing roe, and it produces the largest grained of the sturgeon caviars. The beluga is also found in the Black, Azov, and Adriatic Seas, as well as the Dnepr and Danube rivers.
  
• OSSETRA
  The smaller Ossetra Sturgeon produces a smaller grained egg. Its caviar is noted for its nutty flavor and a color that varies from golden yellow to light brown.
  
• SEVRUGA
  The Sevruga Sturgeon produces the smallest grained caviar of the Caspian Sea sturgeons.

Aristotle also informs us that many lavish Greek banquets would end with trumpet fanfare announcing the arrival of heaping platters of caviar garnished with flowers. According to André Launay in his book Caviare and After, Rabelais (c 1490-1553) mentions caviar in his work Faits et dits Heroiques du Grand Pantagruet (1553). He calls it caviat. He also refers to la bottargue, a red mullet roe product similar to caviar. La bottargue is the predecessor to today's Italian bottarga, the salted and air-dried roe sack from the tuna, grey mullet or swordfish. Larousse Gastronomique cites la Dictionnaire du Commerce(1741), which with typical French reserve claimed that "kavia is beginning to be known in France where it is not despised at the best tables." French caviar production was organized by Louis XVI's minister Jean Baptiste Colbert in the mid-18th century. Colbert placed his caviar headquarters on the Gironde, a major site of caviar production at the time.

In Russia, the czars were the major caviar consumers. Root tells us that Nicolas II taxed the sturgeon fishers what amounted to a hefty 11 tons of top-grade caviar every year. The caviar "given" to the czars was the rarest and, at one time. the most cherished of all caviar - the small golden eggs of the sterlet sturgeon. So insatiable was the Russian nobility's passion for this golden caviar that the species is all but extinct today.

Caviar was not always as rare or expensive as it is now. In the United States at the turn of the century, caviar was offered at taverns and saloons for the same reason that peanuts are offered today: the saltiness encourages more drinking. According to Stein, until 1900 the United States produced about 150,000 pounds of caviar per year. Most of this domestic caviar came from the Delaware River at Penns Grove, New Jersey.

At one time, Hudson River sturgeon were so plentiful that the flesh was referred to as "Albany beef" A nickel could get you a serving of the best caviar available in New York, and many of the most lavish establishments, including the Waldorf Astoria, offered free-flowing caviar as an amuse-bouche opening to an elegant meal.

Caviar was also produced in impressive quantities in the Gironde estuary region, the North Sea, the Baltic and the Sea of Azov.

Root tells us that in 1899 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of French caviar cost a mere 20 centimes. Just before World War 1, 40 centimes bought the same kilogram, putting the price of caviar just slightly higher than that of bread.

Apocryphal stories about the developmentof the caviar production process abound. It is known that most of the early consumers of sturgeon discarded the eggs. There are tales of Caspian pirated and serendipitous accidents. Regardless of its origins, however, caviar production has evolved into a precise and delicate procedure. This painstaking process is one factor that maintains the elevated price of caviar today.

Sturgeon are caught in large nets set by fisher-men and guided to the shore by boats and winches. When a female sturgeon of egg-bearing age is caught in a net, it is stunned by a blow to the head with a wooden club. Back on shore, the fish is stunned a second time before it is taken to the processing room. A precise incision is cut in the belly of the fish and the egg sack is removed whole. In Russia, the eggs are removed before the fish dies; in Iran, the fish is killed before the roe is extracted.

Once the egg sack is freed from the cavity of the fish, it is placed over a large wire grate. The eggs are gently passed back and forth over this "sieve" to separate berries of different sizes. The eggs, which are collected in a metal tin, are then rinsed with fresh water to remove any debris. Once they are cleaned, the master salt blender will come to classify and salt the eggs. Size and color are taken into account for the classification. Color designations range from 000 for the lightest caviar, to 00 for medium- dark caviar, to a 0 for the darkest and most rich-looking caviar.

Next,the master blender decides how to salt the eggs. The finest of the lot will be treated as malossol (literally, "little star)", which means that not more than five percent by weight of salt will be added to the eggs. The malossol caviar is the most delicate in flavor and also the most perishable. (The low salt content limits the amount of time the caviar can be stored.) It is, therefore, also the most expensive. Other caviar will have varying amounts of salt, depending on the quality of the eggs and the final product desired.

Not just any salt can be added to the eggs. Before 1914, Stein tells us, that salt used came from the seas of the Astrakhan Steppe in Russia. To remove the excess chlorine, this Astrakhan salt was stored in a dry room for seven years. Today, the sea salt originates from the mouths of many different rivers in Russia. It is chemically purified and free of iodine. Recently, Iran began purchasing Russian salt in order to ensure that the quality of their final product is as consistent as Russia's.

The salt acts both as a preservative and as a curing agent on the caviar. Raw caviar is almost without texture. After the salt "curing," however, the eggs become more firm. Borax is added to the caviar destined for Europe at the same time as the salt. Borax is a naturally occurring compound (Na2B407. 1OH20) that gives the caviar a softer and sweeter finish. Much to the North American caviar connoisseurs dismay, borax is an illegal food additive in the United States. Thus, the caviar available here contains only salt and fish roe.

Once the salt is evenly distributed, the caviar is passed over a very fine mesh to remove any excess liquid. The finished caviar is packed into the familiar lacquer- coated tins and sealed with elastic bands to be shipped to a distributor. The caviar may also be pasteurized and packaged in jars if it is to remain in storage for long periods of time. According to most aficionados, the pasteurization process drastically changes the flavor of the finished caviar.

Any eggs that are broken or over- mature are processed in a slightly different way to produce pressed caviar, or pajusnaya. Pressed caviar is a thick, marmalade-like caviar that is, according to Stein, the type of caviar preferred by the Russians and most prized by the Greeks. To make the pressed caviar, the less desirable eggs are gathered in cheesecloth and placed in a machine that compresses the cheesecloth sack on all sides. The excess liquid runs off and the thick pajusnaya caviar remains.

By law in the United States and France, any product referred to simply as caviar must come from the eggs of the sturgeon (family Acipenseridae). Traditionally, the roe from four species of sturgeon is considered to produce the best caviar: the Beluga, osetra, sevruga and sterlet. Each of these species calls the Caspian Sea its home. Although sterlet, which produces a small-grained golden caviar was at one time considered the finest available, the species is now very close to extinction, the sterlet caviar is almost never seen. Beluga, which is the largest of the sturgeon family, produces large, loose, glistening black to steel grey berries. It is considered the finest available. Osetra (also known as ossetra, ocetrina, ossetrina, ossetrova and estrova) ranges from brown to golden. The berries are slightly smaller than the Beluga caviar. Some consider the taste of osetra to be more distinct, almost nutty. Many prefer the stronger character of the osetra over the subtlety of the Beluga. Sevruga caviar (also spelled chivrouga), the fourth variety, has the smallest berries. It has the strongest flavor and is perhaps the most readily available. It is also the least expensive of the imported caviar.

The increasing rarity of the Caspian sturgeon is the second major factor contributing to the high cost of caviar. After centuries of intensive fishing and mass industrialization, the stock of fish available in the Caspian Sea has greatly diminished. According to Stein, about 90 percent of the world's caviar comes from this one sea. While the sea has a surface area of approximately 169,000 square miles, all of the sturgeon is bred in an area of no larger than 1,000 acres near the mouth of the Volga river. The water level has been decreasing every year as a result of increased industrialization in the area, and now much of the spawning territory has dried up.

The production of caviar peaked in 1936 at 2,300 tons and sank to fewer than 600 tons in the early '70s. Since then the level has been increasing thanks to advancements in fishing breeding technology. Hundreds of millions of sturgeon fingerlings have been released into the sea to help restock the fish, but the dangerously low water levels are an almost insurmountable problem.

Faced with the exorbitant cost and increasing rarity of Caspian caviar, many other varieties of high-quality caviar are being produced. There are five common types of American sturgeon, the most common of which is referred as the spoonbill, shovel-nose cat or paddlefish. When processed correctly, the American sturgeon roe produces a caviar that is considered excellent. The fish is found principally in the Mississippi-Missouri River system, extending as far north as Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; as far east as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and as far south as New Orleans, Louisiana. The producers in Louisiana, Tennessee are achieving the best results.

Alas, the caviar process is not reserved solely for the eggs from the ancient and mighty sturgeon. Roe from trout, whitefish, salmon, hackleback and lumpfish is processed in much the same way with varying degrees of skill, quality and success. The eggs of the Japanese flying fish produce a golden-orange, crunchy caviar called tobiko. Keluga is an expensive Chinese caviar. When the term caviar is used for one of these "alternative" caviars, it must be qualified by the species of the fish. Thus, lumpfish caviar must always be referred to as such.

Fresh and pasteurized caviar should be stored between 26.5* and 32*. Once opened, caviar should be consumed within one week. Assuming the distributor has handled the caviar correctly, an unopened tin of fresh caviar can be stored for two to three weeks. Pasteurized caviar should hold for to three or four months prior to opening.

There are two schools of thought about the proper way to serve caviar. Subscribers to one school, the purists, believe that the only accompaniment to any fine caviar is a lightly toasted piece of bread spread with a faint film of sweet butter. Anything strong enough to mask the subtle flavor of the row-including egg, onion, sour cream and creme fraiche - is considered blasphemous. Some purists will accept a squirt of fresh lemon juice. Others wouldn't dare. Choosing a drink is easy for these simpletons; the choice is limited to a shot of frozen vodka or a flute of iced champagne. After you've tried the row in this conservative way, it is hard to argue that there is anything wrong with these combinations except that they lack imagination.

But the second school of caviar lovers, the adventurers, take a more typically American approach to caviar consumption. These afficionados concoct anything from Christopher Gross' sea bean soup with scallops and osetra caviar at Christopher's in Phoenix, black bean sauce at Mark's Place in Miami, Florida. Jean Louis Palladin surrounds belon oysters with caviar butter and Beluga caviar, then breads and fries the whole thing to make what resembles a glorified Scotch egg, at Jean Louis at the Watergate in Washington, D.C. San Domenico in New York City serves hand-made combed quill-shaped pasta with caviar and asparagus points. Julian Serrano from Masa's in San Francisco, California, offers a gallette of large Minnesota wild rice with Beluga caviar.

Innovative uses for fish eggs are not limited to our continent, however, Gualtiero Marchesi, of the Michelin three-star restaurant of the same name in Milan, Italy, raises pasta salad to new heights with his "insalata di spaghetti al caviale, erba cipollina,' a chilled spaghetti and chive salad liberally garnished with a glistening dollop of osetra caviar. And even Fredy Girardet at his Michelin three-star restaurant in Crissier, Switzerland, adds to the canon of creative caviar lore with dishes like "court-bouillon d'ecrevisses a l'aneth au Beluga," a bouillon of crayfish with dill and Beluga caviar.

Respecting a few simple rules will ensure a pleasant caviar experience for you and your guests. First, be sure to purchase caviar from a reputable distributor you know and trust. Because of its strong ties to former Cold War enemies, the caviar business often teeters on the fine line between diplomacy and espionage. Numerous spy stories have been told about clandestine midnight shipments of roe or secret meetings on third-party, neutral territory. If your distributor is not reputable, there is no way to guarantee the quality of the original product or that it was transported and stored correctly.

Second, make sure that caviar is stored and used correctly once at your facility. Store the unopened cans in a refrigerated space. Do not handle the caviar with any objects made of metal that easily oxidizes, such as silver or inexpensive stainless steel. When the metal comes into contact with the caviar, it may impart a metallic taste. Use plastic, glass or wood to handle the caviar in the kitchen. Traditionally, gold or mother-of-pearl palettes or spoons are used to eat the delicate berries in the dining room. They are as much for show as they are to ensure that the caviar is not ruined by exposure to an oxidized metal utensil. Use all opened caviar within one week.

Third, if caviar is going to be incorporated into a dish, make sure its flavor is not overpowered by the other ingredients. Do not cook caviar or it will toughen and become extremely unappetizing. To be safe add the caviar toward the end of a preparation or as a last minute garnish.

In the end, if you have chosen to serve caviar, be sure there is enough for the guests to get a mouthful, especially that one coming from Azerbaijan because I think it is the finest caviar in the world.

This entire section was quoted from CaviarClub, written by Mark Bolourchi.

3. Related Cases

4. Draft Author: Martin Messier - May 5th, 1998

II. Legal Clusters

5. Discourse and Status: Agreement and In Progress

6. Forum and Scope: Russia and Multilateral

7. Decision Breadth: 143 countries that have signed CITES

8. Legal Standing: Treaty

III. Geographic Clusters

9. Geographic Locations

10. Sub-National Factors: No

11. Type of Habitat: Ocean

IV. Trade Clusters

12. Type of Measure: Regulatory Standard

13. Direct v. Indirect Impacts: Direct

14. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact

15. Trade Product Identification: Sturgeon and Sturgeon Products

16. Economic Data

17. Impact of Trade Restriction: MEDIUM

18. Industry Sector: Food

19. Exporters and Importers: Russia and Many

V. Environment Clusters

20. Environmental Problem Type: Species Loss Sea

21. Name, Type, and Diversity of Species

22. Resource Impact and Effect: High and Product

23. Urgency and Lifetime: 100 years

24. Substitutes: LIKE

VI. Other Factors