Source: AFP
At a French caviar factory this week, a worker used tiny pliers to carefully line up black sturgeon fish eggs on a ruler.
“I measure the eggs so I can sort them. Above a certain size, they’re premium,” said Magdalena Puaud, wearing a hairnet and face mask.
The fish roe, after being sorted and left to mature in small cans for several months, will be sold in France and abroad for 2,000-10,000 euros ($2,200-11,000) a kilogram (2.2 pounds).
Caviar was first introduced to France about a century ago by Russian aristocrats who had fled their homeland after the 1917 revolution.
Source: AFP
The southwestern region of Aquitaine, which is naturally the home of sturgeon, began producing the delicacy in the 1920s and today is home to four caviar farms that account for 90 percent of French production.
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After a decade of lobbying, Aquitaine farms are looking forward to their caviar finally receiving an EU certificate of origin in the new year.
According to the European Union, “geographical indications” protect products from misuse or imitation of the registered name and guarantee their true origin to customers.
“We have nothing to hide,” said Laurent Dulau, the managing director of Aquitaine’s largest farm in Saint-Fort-sur-Gironde, which produces 20 tons of roe fish a year.
He and other producers hope the EU stamp of approval will allow them to stand out in a market currently dominated by China and full of opaque labels.
“We will guarantee full traceability — origin, environmental responsibility and sustainability, and no genetically modified organisms or antibiotics,” he said.
Last week, in the run-up to Christmas, French authorities seized and destroyed 17 kilograms of caviar worth about 35,000 euros ($38,000) for not following health and safety guidelines, including not identifying its country of origin.
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“Quality, not quantity”
Near the sturgeon pools in Saint-Fort-sur-Gironde, officials fished out females and examined them one by one, a man rolling an ultrasound over their plump white bellies.
“Caviar,” he called out when he saw semicircles on his screen, indicating that the fish was about to be sliced ββopen.
Source: AFP
When the eggs were not yet large enough or very ripe, the fish was sent down a slide back into the water.
The label “validates the way we work,” said fish production manager Nicolas Proust.
Dulau said the certificate of origin would help French producers compete with huge quantities of cheap Chinese caviar.
“There are 600 tons of caviar produced in the world, and China alone produces 250 tons, while France only produces 50 tons,” he said.
Francoise Boisseaud, who buys French caviar and sells it mainly abroad, agreed that the new EU guarantee was good news.
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“France is a small country,” he said. “We’re forced to rely on quality, not quantity. It’s strategic.”
Source: AFP