Caviar
Its Allure, Provenance, and Destiny
By Keyvan Tabari

Halal is Better

As Russian caviar prepared with such specifications became rare, Iranian caviar gained more supporters. The debate about whether it was better than Russian caviar was long standing. The real focus of the argument was the osetra, the caviar preferred by the connoisseurs not only over the sevruga but also the more expensive beluga. (Ramade, 1999: 100) Both Russian and Iranian osetra came from the same Caspian sturgeon, gueldenstaedtii. The Russian caviar was preferred by some who maintained that the warm water of the shallow northern Caspian was more nourishing than the colder deep water of the southern Caspian. On the other hand, those who chose the Iranian caviar argued that the deep southern water was cleaner. They also pointed out that the Iranian eggs were younger, fresher, and firmer as the fish was caught at sea, while the Russians caught their fish in the river at the end of their reproductive cycle when the eggs were riper, softer, and older. Finally, they believed that the sturgeon fished in Iran was purer as they were caught in small boats, rushed to the shore and processed one fish at a time, while the Russians operated from huge fishing stations and processed the fish on the boats, mixing the eggs from several fish.

     Such arguments aside, now all experts agreed that the Iranian caviar was superior simply because it was made under far better control. In contrast to the crude methods used by the Russian poachers in their kitchens, the Iranian caviar was prepared by careful procedures in well equipped plants. The connoisseurs concurred that it also tasted better. (Bennett, 2004; Wells, 2003; Saffron 2002a: 137-138; United Press International, 2000; Associated Press Newswires, 2000)

     Iran , of course, has had its own period of political turmoil, with an eventual outcome for caviar markedly different from Russia 's. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, the religious ban became a serious obstacle for the caviar industry in Iran . Ayatollah Khomeini was among the clerics who had declared that eating sturgeon and its products was forbidden. In 1983, however, he changed his opinion and pronounced them halal, acceptable, based upon a report by a council of religious and scientific experts that discovered scales on sturgeon, especially on its tail fin. (Alam, 2000: 100) Thereupon Iran embarked on developing an efficient network of processing plants and hatcheries, which every year released nearly 25 million fingerlings to restock the sturgeon population, and an aggressive plan to curtail the pollution in its part of the Caspian. (United Press International, 2000; Weiner and Simon, 1998; Oliver, 2003)

     Caviar became Iran 's principal and most valuable fish product. Within two years, domestic consumption doubled, while exports declined. Even then, caviar was one of Iran 's main non-oil exports. The largest portions went to Switzerland , Russia , France , Denmark , Germany , and Japan . (Alam, 2000: 100; Coad , 2004) There was no direct shipment to the Unites States which had imposed an embargo on all imports from the revolutionary Iran due to political disputes.

     While the sturgeon poached in Russia became the main source of caviar for the United States , Iran grew to be the largest producer of legal caviar in the world. (Weiner and Simon , 1998)The amount Iran earned from caviar was modest, about $40 million a year, especially compared with its huge oil revenues. The value of caviar was much more in national pride. This was recognized by the American government when it decided in August 2000 to show good will in the hope of easing relations with Iran by lifting its embargo on three items: Iranians believed they made the best caviar, carpet, and pistachio nuts. Some Iranian caviar soon entered this country, but importing more faced a new obstacle. (Weiner and Simon, 1998; Oliver, 2003; Associated Press Newswires, 2000)

Saving the Living Fossil

In the 1990s the poachers in the former Soviet Union caused a drastic decline in the population of sturgeon in the Caspian. They over fished and fished indiscriminately. Sturgeon sought for its caviar is exceptionally vulnerable to being fished out. Only the female sturgeon produces caviar, and it takes her an inordinately long time, from 7 to 20 years depending on the species, to make eggs and the conventional method of harvesting the roe leads to the killing of the fish, thus also eliminating the would be offspring. Aggravating these problems was the poachers’ use of nets with illegal small meshes which did not even spare the smaller sturgeon whose roe was yet to mature fully. (Ramade, 1999 : 28) As future fish were thus prevented from being born in the wild, dependence on hatcheries increased. Most of the Russian hatcheries, however, were closed due to the lack of funds and could not help replenish the sturgeon stocks. Clearly, if this trend continued, sturgeon would become extinct in the Caspian as it had become in so many other places in the past. The magnitude of this loss, however, would be much bigger since ninety percent of the world's caviar came from the sturgeon remaining in the Caspian. (CITES; United Press International, 2000; Sciolino 2003; Agence France-Press, 2000; Pala, 2001; Robins, 1994)

     Sturgeon are truly unique fish. They are as old as the dinosaurs, having survived for more than 250 million years. They are living relics. The alarm about their impending demise was first tolled in 1993 by a Russian sturgeon expert who had just immigrated to the United States , Vadim Birstein. He found sympathetic listeners at an international environmental agency, the World Conservation Union (IUCN). In 1996, IUCN dispatched investigators from its affiliate organization TRAFFIC to the Caspian. Their report confirmed what Birstein had been warning about. It helped galvanize appeals by many scientists for action by the appropriate United Nations agency known as CITES, the acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna.

     Caviar had thus arrived onto the global table, to be served, in the sense of being protected. Nearly all nations are members of CITES. They are committed to abide by its decisions regarding the export and import of the species which CITES declares under its protection. By restricting international trade in caviar, CITES could reduce the incentives for sturgeon poachers. In 1997 CITES took its first step by pressing Russia to accept limits on its caviar exports. In 1998 CITES assumed the right to restrict all international trade in caviar by designating caviar producing sturgeon as an endangered species. (McCaffery, 2000; Podger, 2004)

     The Russian government proved unable to control the poachers. They, instead, successfully bribed the law-enforcement officials and, often, turned them into protectors to ensure that the poaching and smuggling of caviar went undisturbed. (Nalley, 2002; Pala , 2004)) By 2000 the number of sturgeon in the Caspian had declined so much that the total caught was less than half of the previous year. Much of the illegal caviar continued to come to the United States .

     Just as this nation was becoming the biggest consumer of caviar, American environmental groups began complaining about the ineffectiveness of CITES in protecting the sturgeon. Three major such groups -- the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Conservation Society, and Sea Web-- joined forces in an organization called Caviar Emptor in order better to exert pressure on CITES. The particular subject of their attention was the beluga. (Caviar Emptor, 2004)

     The US was importing about 80% of the world's legally traded beluga caviar, while the number of the beluga sturgeon in the Caspian was dwindling to about 10% of earlier levels. There are probably no more than two thousand beluga left in the Caspian. The beluga is the biggest as well as the rarest of the sturgeon. The threat to the beluga's extinction is more critical than to other species of sturgeon because the latter have larger remaining populations, are smaller in size, and need a shorter time for their roe to mature. They have a chance at faster growth and recovery than the beluga. (Nalley, 2002; Podger, 2004; Siegel, 2002, Caviar Emptor, 2004; Pala, 2001)

     Prodded by Caviar Emptor, CITES agreed to consider banning trade in beluga in its fall 2000 meeting. However, Kazakhstan which has the largest population of beluga did not send a representative, and Russia made it clear that it was against the ban. Its delegates commented that caviar was not important to Russia ; it was oil that was important. With about 16% of the world's oil reserve, the Caspian is indeed a great source of badly needed revenue for Russia, just as the spills from the exploitation of its oil is a serious source of potential environmental disaster for the sturgeon. Of the three nations where the beluga still existed, only one, Iran , was willing to participate in the CITES efforts to save it. Consequently, the 2000 meeting failed to accomplish much; it merely asked the Caspian states to reduce the size of their sturgeon catch. All but Iran refused, maintaining that the existing export quotas were sufficient safeguards. (Saffron 2002a, 236, 239; Sciolino 1998; Cousteau Foundation, 1998; Weiner and Simon, 1998)

     Those other four Caspian States had reduced their combined export quotas on Caspian sturgeon by 50% since 1998. This reduction, however, did not substantially diminish actual fishing. Two factors gave the poachers incentive to continue their illegal fishing beyond the quota. The domestic market for caviar, especially large in Russia , was not restricted by the quota on international trade and, secondly, the export quota was circumvented by corrupt practices. To enforce the quota, the caviar for export was required to have an official certificate, with its individual DNA, issued by the country of origin. This certificate would serve as the caviar's identity card. Smugglers used other countries, particularly Turkey and the United Arab Emirates , as re-exporters of caviar of dubious origin with forged documents. In 2000, an estimated 50% of Russian caviar in the United States had entered illegally, through such means. (Ben Shaul, 2001; McCaffery, 2000; Kirby, 2001) In Europe the proportion was even greater as the illegal Russian caviar arrived by land; it was easier to intercept the contraband at airports in the case of air transportation, used for the United States . 

     In 2001 CITES responded to the high levels of poaching and illegal trade by halting caviar trade by Azerbaijan , Kazakhstan , Russia and Turkmenistan , demanding that they conduct a survey of stocks and start to develop a common management plan. Iran was not subject to this ban because most of its catch were of a species that spent its entire life along the Iranian coastline. It voluntarily joined the regional effort, however, in line with the 1992 agreement of all Caspian states to cooperate in environmental management of that Sea. (Pala, 2001; Caspian Environment Programme, 2001.) The ban was lifted when the Caspian states reported agreement on a plan toward CITES objectives.

     Coordinated efforts by all Caspian States, including Iran, became a requirement in the November 2002 CITES resolution which called on them to develop conservation management plans for their shared stocks and ensure that all catch and export quotas were based on those plans and on recent stock assessments. CITES announced that it would not grant any country annual quotas unless it was satisfied that all Caspian States had complied fully with the requirements of the resolution. (Pala and Fabricant, 2004; CITES)

     CITES withheld quotas for 2004 until October 8, 2004. It waited until the five Caspian States reached agreement on a plan for managing sturgeon stocks and the caviar trade. The plan reduced their caviar export quotas significantly. Their combined 2004 export quota for caviar from beluga is 50% of the 2003 level. The quota for stellate sturgeon has been reduced by 40% compared to 2003. The levels of caviar from Russian and Persian sturgeon have been cut by 10%. (CITES) 

     These reductions satisfied the U.S. government, which earlier in the year had agreed to list the beluga sturgeon as threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act. It now decided against halting imports of beluga caviar as long as that trade was consistent with international regulations. The American environmentalists, however, declared that the controls were inadequate. For them the proper course is to ban caviar from wild sturgeon and replace it with the caviar from farmed sturgeon. As a co-founder of Caviar Emptor put it, “It's absolutely in bad taste to eat the eggs of a fish that is in such dire straits, especially when there are alternatives, such as the environmentally friendly American (farmed) caviars.” (Caviar Emptor, 2004; No Ban on Beluga Caviar)

Domesticating the Beast 

     Making an exception to the ban on commercial Sturgeon fishing, beginning in 1980 California allowed each of a dozen applicants to catch up to twenty white sturgeon annually from the Sacramento River for their fish farms. Because this sturgeon lived most of its life in the sea, raising it in captivity posed new challenges which were eventually met with the help of aquaculture experts from the University of California in Davis . Thousands of their offspring now swim in tanks in several farms near Sacramento . The rice paddies surrounding the largest such farm, in Elverta, evoke the landscape of Iran ’s caviar center at the Caspian, Bandar Anzali. Sturgeon farming, however, has not been profitable in this country. Although breeding and a better diet have greatly reduced the maturation period, it still takes a decade for this sturgeon to produce caviar. (Struffennegger 2005) For American investors that is too long. In 1995, the Elverta farm was sold to a Norwegian company, called Stolt . The California white sturgeon caviar is now marketed under the new owners' brand name, Sterling . (Saffron 20022: p 220-222, 225, 230, 232-33; United Press International, 2000; Engstrom)

     It is possible to establish a sturgeon farm anywhere in the world. American caviar is now being produced not just in California but also in the farms of Georgia and Missouri . (Nalley, 2002) Even in the Southern Hemisphere which never had any native sturgeon, there are now sturgeon farms. Starting in the 1990s, the Russian hatcheries, in need of money, have supplied fertilized sturgeon eggs to fish farms in Uruguay , Sri Lanka , Hawaii , and Australia . There are obviously not enough wild sturgeon to supply the global demand for caviar; domestication through farming might be the only solution.

The Choice of the Swells

Farmed caviar has won praises. To some critics the American Sterling tastes much like osetra. In Paris, Caviar d'Aquitaine has become chic. (Sciolino 2003) Still, there are many skeptics. "I don't think we can yet compare them with the real thing", says one restaurateur. (Siegel, 2002) Alongside their mostly Iranian and Russian caviar, the Petrossians sell a smaller quantity of farmed French and American caviar which they deem only "not bad," (Saffron, 2002a: 226) they disdain farmed caviar from other countries. The complaint about farmed caviar is that they all taste the same. That sweet water taste, earthy, dirty, or muddy, is considered a poor flavor compared with the Caspian caviar. (Boeckmann and Rebeiz-Nielsen, 1995: 19; Saffron, 2002a: 226; Sciolino, 2003; Hardman, 2003)

     We have four basic taste buds, to sense salt, sweet, sour, and bitter. Researchers have recently discovered one more, umami, which enables us to taste savory flavors. Eating good caviar is called the quintessential umami experience. (Hardman, 2003 ) The flavor of Russian caviar is enhanced by the addition of borax in processing it; the eggs are thus sweetened a little as favored, especially, by European consumers. (Boeckmann and Rebeiz-Nielsen, 1995: 8) The Federal Drug Administration does not allow American caviar producers to use borax, although it permits the import of Russian caviar. This unfair advantage is not shared by the Iranian caviar which is not processed with borax. The right amount of calibrated salt to be added in the processing, however, is better predictable for the wild sturgeon of the Iranian caviar than for the farmed sturgeons which are processed with an unvaried amount. (Struffennegger 2005)

     To the aficionados the Caspian caviar is not merely about taste. It is several sensual experiences combined. It is about texture, the way it feels in the mouth, the way it pops in a little explosion and releases a flavor of the ocean and salt. (Siegel, 2003; Wells, 2003; Brand, 2002) In the winter of 2001, the American farmed caviar Sterling won in an informal blind tasting organized by the Wall Street Journal. The samples included a “fancy” Russian caviar which, admittedly, suffered from “a long trip.” (Passy 2001) The news created some excitement, but it did not shake the loyalists. (Saffron, 2002a: 226) To them, caviar “definitely is not food. It's a unique product representing many things - an experience, a handiwork, a specialty, a dream perhaps." (Avakian, 1992) As another veteran caviar dealer rhapsodized, "Really it's a sexual product. It's mysterious and exclusive .... The mystery may be in people's minds.... No other foodstuff commands such awe and respect. Elusive and incomparable, it is quite simply in a league of its own.... Caviar... offers an orgy of sensual pleasures.” (Rice, 1998)

     The continuing huge price difference between Sterling and Caspian caviar proves that the connoisseurs really want the latter. (Associated Press Newswires, 2000; Nalley, 2002) AThe lower-priced farmed caviar can be used to fill an omelet, to top a deviled egg, to spark Thousand Island dressing or to top a baked potato mashed with sour cream. But, of course, the best caviar can and should stand on its own; the ritual of topping it with chopped egg, onion and other garnishes stems from camouflaging a mediocre product. (Robins, 1994) With the pricey good Caspian caviar, the best chefs offer only the simple contrast of toasted white bread, or blinis. (Boeckmann and Rebeiz-Nielsen, 1995:27; Wells, 2003)

     In the public mind, the costliness of this exclusive favorite of the “Swells” only enhances caviar's reputation as a snobbery enabler. “The question is how open-minded we can be when Caspian caviar has cornered the market on fish-egg mystique. Your taste buds might confuse paddlefish roe from the limestone springs of Kentucky for fine sevruga, but how long will it take before your romantic prejudices allow your brain to accept the information? To attain true gourmet snobbism, a food must be rare (beluga) .... In the English-speaking world it also helps a lot if the French liked it first.” (Nalley) Neither is the rest of the world immune to such appeal. The Swiss, like the French, are among the biggest consumers of caviar. AThe Swiss because they think they should and the French because they love it, observe two British food writers, in their rather cheeky tongues. (Boeckmann and Rebeiz-Nielsen, 1995: 50)

    To another commentator, “This is what caviar does: it massages the ego, makes you feel like a big shot, and sends you off on a high of hubristic hot air.” (Bennet, 2003) The cosmetic companies have not lost sight of this spectacle. They have used caviar as a beauty product, for a nourishing face mask, a solution to condition dry bleached hair, and a rejuvenating cream for eyes and throats. In what may be the latest trend, Chicago 's Four Season hotel has begun offering a caviar facial treatment at its spa. (Strauss, 2003; Boeckmann and Rebeiz-Nielsen, 1995: 10-14) 

References 

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Associated Press Newswires (2000) >Iranian caviar back on U.S. menus after lengthy embargo=, 29 December; reproduced on the website of HighBeam Research: www.highbeam.com

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Biographical Note: Keyvan Tabari is an international lawyer in San Francisco. He holds a PhD and a JD, 
and has taught at Colby College, the University of Colorado, and the University of Tehran. 

Address: ktabari@sbcglobal.net

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