The share of caviar in Iran’s non-oil exports

The share of caviar in Iran’s non-oil exports

The share of caviar in Iran’s non-oil exports: The illegal trade of caviar as a very valuable consumer good has such a situation that in the future with the continuation of this process of extinction of this type of Caspian fish will not be far from the mind and then only in stories It will be remembered.

Annually, more than 90% of the world’s caviar and sturgeon are produced in the Caspian Sea, and due to its high value, it is one of the high sources of income for exporters. The illegal trade of caviar as a very valuable consumer good has such a situation that in the future, with the continuation of this process, the extinction of this type of Caspian fish will not be far from the mind and from then on it will be mentioned only in stories.

It was reported that in the early years of the present century, the illicit trade in caviar-producing fish was about 5 to 6 times the value of its legal trade in the world market. This has led to a significant reduction in the number of caviar-producing fish in the Caspian Sea.

Smuggling and overfishing, seawater pollution, the influx of sewage and pollutants have put the sturgeon population in the world’s largest closed lake at serious risk. This illegal trade in sturgeon and sturgeon, which produces only half of its lifespan and sometimes reproduces every five years, is causing great damage to the sturgeon industry in the Caspian Sea.

The Caspian Sea, as the largest source of sturgeon in the world, supplies 90% of the world’s caviar, but caviar extraction last year was less than 10 tons, while in the 60s, caviar extraction in the country was more than 200 tons per year.

The annual inflow of five million tons of pollutants from the northern provinces of Iran into the Caspian Sea, sound the alarm about the gradual death of the sea’s reserves, and the continuation of the pollution process, turning this sea into a landfill in the future.

On the other hand, the different species of fish in this region, especially sturgeon, have caused the Caspian Sea to be considered by many countries in the world. Due to its high value, it is one of the high sources of income for exporters. This has led to an increase in the volume of illegal trade in sturgeon and caviar in these countries.

This illegal trade led the International Atomic Energy Agency to restrict the export of caviar and sturgeon.

The center’s scientists suggested that only 100 sturgeon fish be caught in the entire Caspian Sea annually, and others called for a ban on fishing for the expensive fish and proposed a plan to develop sturgeon farms.
Prior to the production and export restrictions, the price of each pound of Iranian caviar for export was equal to 2,960 US dollars, but after the implementation of the export restriction plan, the price of each pound of caviar reached more than five thousand dollars.
Currently, illegal fishing, smuggling of caviar, non-observance of fishing, non-reconstruction of sturgeon stocks in the Caspian Sea and increasing pollution of seawater due to sewage from neighboring countries are the main reasons for the extinction of such fish.

According to the director of sturgeon affairs in Mazandaran, these sturgeons are living fossils that have been present in the sea for millions of years, and unfortunately only two countries, Iran and Russia, work on the protection of these sturgeons.

Other countries plunder these sturgeons without spawning a single sturgeon, but in our country last year, about 20 million sturgeon larvae were spawned and released into the sea.

Fishing quota

During the former Soviet Union, the country had a large share of water. Accordingly, the Soviet government enacted a law to catch these fish, but after the collapse of this land, each country drafted a new law, which increased the catch.

This increase in fishing has led scientists to announce that the number of sturgeon has dropped by 90 percent over the past century, and that no caviar-producing fish will remain in the Caspian Sea for the next 10 years.

They consider the most important issue to be illegal fishing by people unfamiliar with such expensive fish. Because these people do not even recognize the male and female sex of this fish and after catching it, they immediately open the belly of the fish.

In 2007, the sturgeon fishing quota in the Caspian Basin was announced as 1,071 tons. Of this amount, 450 tons were shares of Iran, 286 tons were shares of Russia, 182 tons were shares of Kazakhstan, 90 tons were shares of Azerbaijan and 63 tons were shares of Turkmenistan.
Iran is allowed to supply 47% of its production to export markets. According to the law, Russia will supply 26.4%, Kazakhstan 14.5%, Azerbaijan 7.3% and Turkmenistan 4.8% of its caviar and sturgeon production to world markets.

Extraction of two thousand kilos of caviar from the Caspian Sea

Director of Mazandaran Sturgeon Affairs announced the extraction of 2,670 kg of caviar from the Caspian Sea last year, which is worth more than seven million euros.