China moving into the premium caviar market with Lake Hangzhou sturgeon
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [T Magazine] By Elaine Sciolino - October 29, 2014 -
Caviar has lost its national identity.
Over the years, caviar-producing wild sturgeon in the Caspian Sea have been poached, smuggled and overfished to the brink of extinction. Sturgeon fishing fell under a series of strict international quotas and in 2008 was subjected to a global ban by CITES.
China, meanwhile, is moving forward rapidly in caviar farming, and eventually could come to dominate it, thanks in part to freshwater Lake Hangzhou. The water of this 221-square-mile lake is pure, its currents strong. Sturgeon are housed in huge cages that can be raised and lowered to a depth of 164 feet to keep them cold. “It’s a great beginning, and it’s approaching what you used to find in the Osetra or the Caspian,” says Raphaël Bouchez, Kaviari’s president.
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