DNA testing proves case of fishy caviar import
Analysis showed alleged low-grade cargo was really 'the good stuff' worth $305,000
OLIVER MOORE
A major Toronto-area caviar dealer was convicted yesterday of importing illegally after DNA testing showed that one of its shipments was from an entirely different part of the world than the permit claimed.
Although gourmets say they can taste the difference between good caviar and bad, officials with Environment Canada opted for a more scientific method. With their suspicions raised by a cargo that purported to be kaluga, a relatively low-grade variety from East Asia, they turned to the investigative method that has proved wrongful convictions and put criminals behind bars.
"It was the DNA analysis that told us something was going on here," said Gary Colgan, director of the wildlife enforcement division at Environment Canada.
He said that Mark Omidi, owner of Caviar Centre, had been identified as one of two major Canadian importers of the luxurious food. In an effort to ensure no illegal products were coming in, investigators decided to monitor every shipment to check, as Mr. Colgan put it, "if it smelled right."
Suspicions raised by this shipment, the agency took samples for the lab. With the results in hand, both the business and its owner were charged with unlawfully importing without a permit.
What DNA testing showed, Mr. Colgan explained, was that the caviar came from sturgeon in the Caspian Sea. The problem was that the permit had claimed it was from the Amur River, which lies northeast of Mongolia and forms part of the border between Russia and China.
"What was declared wasn't what was in the tins, it was something else entirely," Mr. Colgan said. "The analysis revealed [that] what was in the cans was a mixture of beluga, sevruga and osetra. The good stuff."
(No caviar is cheap, but prices can be steep for the varieties he listed. Of the three, beluga is the most expensive and in Toronto an ounce of it can easily cost $150. Kaluga is considerably less dear at about $45 an ounce.)
Charges against Mr. Omidi were ultimately dismissed but Caviar Centre was convicted yesterday at the Ontario Court of Justice. The business was fined $3,000 and forfeited 126 kilograms of seized caviar, the value of which Environment Canada put at $305,000.
There have been convictions against people who smuggle caviar into Canada -- Mr. Colgan recalled specifically the prosecution of several flight officials with LOT Polish Airlines -- but this is thought to be the first such conviction against a business.
Caviar from Caspian Sea sturgeon has become increasingly difficult to obtain legally and, with the black market worth as much as $500-million annually, its consumption has been denounced by conservationists.
This year, alarmed by the plunging population of Caspian sturgeon, the United Nations put the onus on wild-caviar exporting nations to prove that their conservation methods will preserve fish stocks. At the time, Mr. Omidi denounced the move and said that more responsible nations were being penalized by the lawless behaviour in other areas around the Caspian.
"It's not good news. . . . I have clients who don't care about the price, they need legal caviar," Mr. Omidi told The Globe and Mail in January.
He could not be reached last night to comment on these more recent developments.
|
