"Caviar" Iranian black pearl .. What is the volume of production and price and the impact of sanctions on it?

Mohammad Rehmanpour-Tehran

Caviar - or black pearl - is a salted egg extracted from some types of fish, and it contains many nutrients, and is classified as the most expensive and most famous appetizers, and produces 90% of all types in the world in the Caspian Sea in northern Iran.

Caviar (or sturgeon) is one of the oldest living organisms on earth, and, according to historians, dates back to the Jurassic period (145-200 million years), also called living fossils, and has been included in the past years in the list of endangered animals.

Caviar fish
Eight years ago, all countries bordering the Caspian Sea (Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan) signed an agreement not to catch caviar from the Caspian Sea, increasing production through fish farming farms.

According to Eng. Nasser Karmi Rad, Director General of the Office of Restoration and Conservation of Aquatic Animal Genetic Munitions at the National Fisheries Organization, he told Al Jazeera Net that five species of caviar are found in the Caspian Sea.

He added that after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of new countries on the coast of the Caspian Sea, countries began fishing caviar without any restrictions, which made all species face the specter of extinction, and then formed the Convention on the Living Resources of the Caspian Sea to recover and preserve marine ammunition and caviar fish.

He pointed out that marine caviar fishing is not currently carried out on all sides, but that only Iran and Russia were allowed limited fishing, in order to increase them in industrial ponds, and then return them to the sea and save them from extinction.

Fish farms
In the absence of caviar fishing from the Caspian Sea, and in order to preserve the status of Iranian caviar in the world, caviar fish farms have begun to spread in Iran to fill the gap and the continued export of caviar to the countries of the world, as well as some new countries competing in the cultivation of farmed caviar, such as China, Russia and Armenia .

Iran annually receives about 3 million pieces of small caviar in the Caspian Sea, in order to enrich the Caspian caviar munitions for re-hunting.It has also established 130 farms to breed farmed caviar throughout Iran.In 2018, it produced about 2,830 tons of caviar meat and six tons. Of their eggs.

Marine ecologist Dr. Akbari believes that the flow of sewage from cities and factories into the sea, pollution from oil and gas extraction, illegal fishing, destruction of river banks, declining water flow to the sea due to drought, overwhelming geological exploitation of the sea, and low fish nutrition; The main reasons behind the decline in the number of caviar fish in the Caspian Sea.

Iranian caviar
The specialist and exporter of caviar Mohammad Swarzadeh - in his talk to the island Net - about the characteristics that distinguish the Iranian caviar compared to others, it lives a long time - especially the quality of block - sometimes up to a hundred years, and weighs up to a ton, and as the size of the fish grows eggs , And therefore its price rises.

The Iranian caviar is not injected with hormone to extract eggs and then left in the sea again, but hunted only once to keep the egg high quality.

There is also no manipulation of genes in order to obtain caviar within a short period of time, as does China, which spawns caviar in its fourth year instead of tenth.

The production of Iranian caviar in the Caspian Sea reached 300 tons a year two decades ago, but fell to zero - according to the Ports and Shipping Authority - where it was replaced by farmed caviar with production reached six tons last year, and only two tons are officially exported.

Iran plans to produce 100 tonnes of caviar and 10,000 tonnes of fish meat by 2025.

Impact of sanctions
Sanctions against Iran have affected the caviar export sector, where they cannot be sold and money brought into the country because many international banks have ceased to deal with Iranian banks. This poses a further threat to the future of Iranian caviar and threatens to worsen its global ranking as Chinese caviar leads the way. And other global markets.

The price per kilogram of caviar grown in Iran ranges from about $ 1,000 to $ 1,200, and its export price rises to 1,500 and 2,000 euros, depending on the quality and export season.

The reason for the high cost of caviar is the decrease in the number, in addition to the long period of development of eggs (between ten and twenty years according to different types), as well as the quality of fish, and the size of eggs, compared to other fish.

Observers hope that the efforts of the Caspian Sea countries will result in double protection of caviar fish and preservation of the environment for the continuation of all living assets in the sea, and return to marine fish instead of farmed.