Caviar.
It’s considered the most expensive food in the world
and can cost up to US$4,500 a pound.
For the last 200 years,
it’s been a luxury item,
gracing the plates of royalty and dignitaries.
Traditionally, caviar was a staple of Russia and the Middle East,
harvested from the wild sturgeon populations of the Caspian Sea.
But today,
the world’s largest and best producers of caviar come from...
China.
I went to China to visit Kaluga Queen,
now the world’s largest caviar company.
It churns out 70 percent of China’s caviar
and 30 percent of the world’s supply.
Taste experts generally say that China's caviar
is the more superior caviar on the market now,
certainly the most superior farmed caviar.
And that's because it has a very fresh,
salty taste which is the closest in taste to wild caviar.
The operational capacity of the Chinese caviar supply chain
is far superior.
Chinese caviar can be fresh all year round,
so it can be harvested and brought to market,
and sold and consumed within four weeks.
But how did China,
a country that traditionally doesn’t eat caviar,
come to dominate the market?
The reason why, basically, is because they got really lucky.
The food trade in general
is really influenced by political events.
Here’s the history.
Wild sturgeon was abundant in the Caspian Sea.
But the caviar industry was heavily regulated by the Soviet Union.
When the Soviet Union collapsed,
the industry became a free-for-all,
leading to corruption and illegal fishing.
Caviar numbers dropped.
The illegal market became 10 times larger than the legal one.
And because of the corruption,
the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species
banned the export of Caspian Sea caviar.
Since sanctions were imposed against
importing Russian products in 2015,
people are just not importing it anymore.
The market has shifted towards Chinese caviar,
not necessarily because of perception,
but because of market conditions.
The people who invested into those farms
10 or 15, or 20 years ago just got really lucky.
Today, a majority of the world’s caviar
comes from farms like this one.
The sturgeon is an ancient fish species
dating back to the Triassic Period
and has an average lifespan of 60 years.
But these don’t get to live that long.
It takes about a decade for them to reach maturity
before they are slaughtered for their eggs.
First, they begin their lives in a nursery.
The fish are raised in the lake for 7 to 15 years,
depending on the species.
Then in their final moments, they’re transferred here.
Then it’s off to the slaughterhouse,
where the caviar is extracted and canned in a matter of minutes.
Now, the beluga caviar is the most expensive.
They can live for up to 100 years,
but in the wild,
the species is one of the most endangered.
To this day, it is illegal to import beluga caviar
into the United States, even farmed ones.
Today, Kaluga Queen is the caviar of choice for many suppliers
and high-end restaurants around the world.
In 2018,
China shipped more caviar to the U.S.
than the rest of the world combined.
But a tariff increase amid an ongoing trade war
could mean a slowdown in business.
But not every country is ready to publicly admit
that they serve caviar made in China.
In Paris, the majority of Michelin-starred restaurants
in Paris use Chinese caviar on their menus,
and they state the origin of the caviar on their menus,
whereas in London,
the majority of high-end restaurants in London
don't actually state the origin of the caviar.
When people hear the word caviar,
they automatically think of Persia and Russia.
That's the customer expectation.
And when they hear that the caviar
is not made in one of those places,
they wonder whether it's inferior.
There's a perception gap there between
what people are used to
and what they've always had with caviar,
which is the wild sturgeon caviar.
And farmed caviar
is probably going to replace a lot of the wild caviar on the market
because it's just the stocks
just aren't there for wild caviar anymore.
While not everyone is convinced,
aquaculture companies like Kaluga Queen
say they are providing an environmental benefit
by farming the fish instead.