Caviar Is Coming After All

By FLORENCE FABRICANT
Published: October 13, 2004

AVIAR from the 2004 catch will be arriving on the market before the holiday season after all, but how much and at what price is not clear.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, a United Nations group, finally set quotas for the 2004 catch last week, after declining to do so last month. On the international market, caviar cannot be sold or traded without export permits that comply with the quotas. Now exports can begin.

The 2004 quotas allow 10 percent less osetra than last year, 40 percent less sevruga and half the beluga.

Supplies of beluga are already extremely limited. And because beluga sturgeon was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act last spring by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, beluga caviar is subject to additional restrictions, which could further cut imports. The service is to decide by Oct. 21 whether to remove those restrictions.

Caviar prices are already climbing and may rise as much as 25 percent before the end of the year. Two ounces of fine Caspian Sea sevruga or osetra may cost $100 or more. Beluga could be double that.

Sevruga, which is usually the least expensive caviar, will now cost about as much as osetra. There has been a sharp decline in the sevruga harvest, probably because of poaching.

Any caviar that seems to be a bargain is probably contraband or over the hill, or has been frozen.

At a meeting of the United Nations agency in Bangkok this month, the caviar-producing countries that border the Caspian Sea agreed to reduce the quotas in return for the setting of quotas early in the year. That way, the countries will know how much caviar they can harvest before the spring catch begins. In 2003 the quotas were not set until September.

The caviar that is on the market now, and most of the caviar that will be sold during the holiday season, is from the 2003 catch. When fresh caviar has been properly cured and stored, it has a shelf life of 18 months. Consumers who buy caviar from a reputable dealer should not be concerned about quality.