Caviar species, locations, fish, eggs, maturity, demand, and supply also, why caviar so expensive?
There are many reasons that make CAVIAR the most expensive food, which begs the question of why caviar so expensive? Considering the fish species, eggs, the extended it takes to be mature, and rarity.
Caviar – or black pearl – is a salt egg and extract from some types of fish. The eggs contain many nutrients and classify as one of the most expensive and famous luxury appetizers. Also, experts had produced 90% of all its classes in the Caspian Sea in northern Iran.
There are a few reasons why caviar so expensive (properly the roe of the beluga sturgeon fish: any other roe cannot correctly call caviar, but rather a roe) Such as:
- Caviar took from beluga sturgeon that are mature, which can take years, even decades.
- Supply and demand: caviar produced in a few places on earth, but gourmets worldwide desire it so that the producers can charge more.
- The beluga sturgeon considered an endangered species, so there are laws in various places forbidding its export or import.
In this article, we are going to see the following:
1. Why caviar so expensive?
2. Caviar eggs and extraction
3. Caviar fish, eggs, and maturity
4. Caviar fish
5. Beluga and Black caviar
6. The price of caviar
7. Demand and supply
8. Location and species
Why caviar so expensive?
Caviar is from the sturgeon eggs. We can find it in the Caspian Sea in northern Iran and distributed among several types. The best is the (Beluga) fish, whose price per kilogram reaches over 2400 dollars in Iran. Also, the price doubled for imported European countries.
We can find these fish’ habitat in the Caspian Sea. A vast lake surrounded by five countries (Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan). These countries supply the world market with 80 percent of caviar.
The caviar eggs classify according to their type, color, size, and taste. The Beluga caviar eggs’ price, which weighs one ton, is over 2500 dollars per kilogram. Simultaneously, the cost of the other caviar ranges between 1200 and 1800 dollars, for example.
Observers believe that the high prices of caviar on the world market in recent years are because of the ban on fishing and the share of the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea. The indiscriminate and illegal fishing and the lack of some types of caviar, such as the Beluga fish, constitute only 2 percent of the annual catch.
As fishermen call them, caviar, or black pearls, caught in three Iranian provinces, namely Golestan, Kylan, and Mazandaran, which borders the Caspian Sea.
Iran exported over 58 tons of caviar eggs a year ago, worth around 42 million dollars to various countries globally, especially Europe, America, and the Arab world. Stressing that Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, and Switzerland are among the most importing Iranian caviar countries, followed by the United States, Japan, and the UAE.
Caviar eggs and extraction
To answer the question of why caviar so expensive? The rare sturgeon fish’s caviar extracts are among the most valuable and luxurious caviar types because of the fish’s need for an extended period to develop its eggs, up to 21 years.
The salty eggs are extracting from the roe of some types of fish. Such as sturgeon and other types of other fish are the main and only outlet for caviar. These eggs commercially market worldwide as it is an expensive and high-end appetizer.
Caviar, or the food of the luxury and the rich, as its connoisseurs call it. It is also one of the wealthiest and most expensive types of fish wealth. It contains excellent nutritional benefits that you hardly find in any tonic or medicinal drug. Besides, it is free from any side effects that harm human health.
This type of sturgeon’s high price, from which caviar eggs extracted, contains a group with a very high nutritional value of energy estimated at 2,800 calories—besides, 28 percent of protein addition to being an effective sexual stimulant.
A team of specialists and experts supervise caviar egg extraction, where all health and safety specifications consider maintaining its quality and flavor.
Caviar fish, eggs, and maturity
Another reason for why caviar so expensive is that the caviar fish (or sturgeon) is one of the oldest living things on earth. According to historians, it dates back to the Jurassic period (145-200 million years). Experts also call it the living fossils. Besides, in past years it was on the list of endangered animals.
While spawning, sturgeon and other fish can lay a massive number of eggs all at once. With just a few hatchlings who survived the risky venture into adulthood. They vastly improve and quicker developing fish species. Humankind’s interest in their meat and eggs—the more slow-developing; the more drawn out living sturgeons.
With age lengths of eight to twenty years, a sturgeon takes around multiple times as long to renew populaces in the wild. It is substantially more costly to bring up in bondage, contrasted with other roe delivering fish types, salmon, trout, and bowfin.
A fish demands a long period to develop and make eggs. An essential cost considers in shoppers’ value. Contingent upon the fish could take between two or thirty years before a female would be mature and spawn attractive roe. For producers who are waiting for sturgeon caviar to grow and mature require a lot of patience; however, most of them are financially impatient.
Sturgeon ranchers need to stand by for quite a while before seeing any profit for their venture. If you didn’t reap roe at the right time in the fish’s life, the caviar might be left unusable or sold at a lower price as a lower quality commodity.
Caviar fish
There are about 27 species of sturgeon in all parts of the world (In North America, Europe, and Asia). These fish are still threatening with extinction because of overfishing. Also, humans destroy their natural environment. However, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) placed eighteen species of these fish on its Red List of Endangered Animal. It was making sturgeon the most endangered species on earth. Besides, It believed sturgeon to be more imperiled than some other gathering of species.
The overfishing and poaching of sturgeon were happening continuously. Jeopardized sturgeon species aren’t recuperating from their environments’ demolition, contamination of their waters, and damming their generating grounds. All these factors reduced sturgeon.
These fish remain so uncommon and hard to concentrate on in the wild. Both the apparent shortage and real accessibility of sturgeon items reflect market costs.
The essential work is to forestall eliminating these species factors into caviar’s general value today. Eventually, the shortage of caviar takes care of the interest for it. The more difficult it is to have the product, the more costly it will be.
For current buyers, there is another source of caviar available. Late 20th century actions focused on breeding grown sturgeon. They were making regular customers ready to purchase Beluga, Kaluga, Osetra, Sevruga, Siberian, and other endangered sturgeons. Despite these mechanical advances in hydroponics, sturgeon caviar will be much more expensive today than ever before.
The rarer caviar becomes the more difficult it becomes to get it, and the higher its price. The sturgeon grows to weigh more than half a ton and produces large quantities of eggs. It had recorded the name of a fish that weighed about 1,200 kilograms and laid eggs of about 450 kilograms, valued at today’s prices of half a million dollars.
Beluga and Black caviar
Black Caviar is much more expensive than red caviar because of the high price of rare and endangered sturgeon. Also, Black caviar cost is about 1200 dollars.
Another reason why caviar so expensive for the high price of black caviar is the low number of spawning times for sturgeons, which spawn only three times during their life cycle, which may reach 60 years.
White escargot caviar is costly. Undoubtedly, Malossol Beluga sturgeon roe is the most expensive caviar and handling costs.
As the biggest freshwater fish on earth, the Beluga is exceptionally costly to bring and barely observed up in the wild—Southern Caspian Sea beluga around 60 years old with uncommon pigmentation deserts.
There are a few sturgeons remain in the Caspian Sea. It is illicit to import any wild Iranian beluga items in the USA.
The price of caviar
The caviar price is one of the most expensive and famous luxury appetizers globally, depending on the composition of the eggs of certain types of fish.
Besides, the decrease in the number of sturgeon fish, the excessive fishing of this rare fish type; caused many international organizations to preserve the species from extinction. Therefore, many global brands producing caviar would solve this crisis by raising sturgeon fish in private farms to meet consumers’ demand.
However, this type of fish needs excellent care and a particular way of dealing with getting the best product, thus spending more money charging on caviar price.
International companies resorted to other methods such as producing caviar from fish of the same type of sturgeon, like Beluga fish, Osetra, Sevruga. Also, Siberian fish closely approximates the market price of sturgeon caviar.
The most expensive caviar in the world ranged from $7,000 to $10,000/kg called Beluga. That’s why caviar so expensive.
Demand and supply
The high price of caviar is the limited production with the increase in demand for it, as sturgeon lives in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. They expose to chemical and petroleum pollution, which makes getting the fish very difficult. Because the goal of fishing is eggs and not the fish itself, the buyer pays the cost of fishing because the demand for sturgeon is less than the need for its eggs.
Supply and demand influence the ultimate cost of caviar. The supply of caviar is low, and why it may take so long for it to increase, but there is also a high demand for caviar that keeps the prices high. In the past, caviar considered wealthy and royalty food, making it coveted as a status symbol that people desire for its unique taste.
Caviar has only grown in popularity in the last few decades. While caviar cultivation has gained some progress in meeting consumer demand, unique uses, and diversity have led the caviar industry to grow to new heights. When you associate lower supply with higher demand, the result will increase.
The higher costs result is from the lack of production, the cost of fishing, and the demand for part of the fish, not the fish itself.
Hence, demand and supply paved the way to why caviar so expensive.
Location and species
Sturgeon has a long rearing cycle, and fish can take years to become sexually mature. There may also be the trouble of overfishing in the beyond, and unlawful smuggling was also a problem. The species’ threat is so significant that governments have come together to protect the three main sturgeon species, are the Beluga, Osetra, and Sevruga.
Since it is no longer possible to catch sturgeon in the Caspian Sea waters, the only caviar available is fish that harvest on private farms. These farms contain the waters that long sturgeon thrived in. It also has plates that provide the fish with the best diet. It has proven almost impossible to replicate the Caspian Sea conditions elsewhere globally, in other sturgeon farms.
Specialists and experts had made many efforts to replicate the Caspian Sea conditions, but none have succeeded. The waters of the immense inland sea differ from anything else, negatively affecting the fish. Despite enormous investment and generation, farmers from China to Europe could not reproduce Russian and Iranian caviar quality. It can take up to twenty years before a farm becomes viable and produce roe. So, the Caspian Sea roe is more expensive than that from anywhere else.
To conclude
Why caviar so expensive? Caviar is indeed one of the most expensive delicacies in the world. Caviar usually comes from rare sturgeon species that can take many years to develop roe. Meanwhile, cheaper caviar and fish roe come from more abundant species producing eggs in far less time.