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International trade in beluga caviar resumes on small scale
By DPA
Geneva - International trade in the most expensive type of caviar was allowed Monday to resume for the first time in a year after new catch quotas were set for Caspian Sea country producers.
The total catch limit for wild beluga, for the year 2007, was set at 3.7 tonnes. With Kazakhstan allowed to catch 1.7 tonnes, Iran one tonne, Russia 700 kilos and Azerbaijan 300 kilos, according to a statement released by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Beluga is the most highly prized caviar and can fetch up to 10,000 US dollars a kilo.
The quota is down almost a third on the previous quota set in 2005 by CITES, the United Nations agency which sets international catch and export quotas for endangered species.
CITES effectively banned the trade in caviar from the Caspian Sea in 2006 by refusing to set quotas, blaming a lack of information on actual fish stocks provided by the main producers.
It also set limits for five other types of sturgeon in January this year.
According to CITES, the population of Caspian sturgeon continued to diminish despite international controls and the CITES secretariat threatened a possible tightening of measures.
'The Caspian States have stepped up their efforts to control the caviar trade and to release millions of young fish into the sea, but the decline in populations cannot be allowed to continue', said CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers.
'The CITES Secretariat does not have the authority to reject or amend quotas that have been submitted according to the agreed rules, but the Secretariat will be using all the tools at its disposal to bring this trade onto a more sustainable footing,' Wijnstekers added.
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