Posted on 03/25/2015 7:37:32 AM PDT by Paid_Russian_Troll
Calvisano (Italy) (AFP) - With pools 85 times the size of the nearby pitches where Rugby Calvisano plays, the company Agro Ittica Lombarda is putting this northern Italian town on the map again -- as the world's top caviar producer.
The story began in the late 1970s, when the town's steel mill teamed up with a Californian biologist to use the heat generated by the mill to warm pools to raise sturgeons, whose eggs are used to make the salty delicacy.
The world's most prized caviar comes from wild sturgeon in the Caspian Sea.
Agro Ittica was the first sturgeon farmer in Europe and well positioned in 1998 when under CITES, the international convention to protect endangered species, fishing of the Caspian sturgeon was restricted, then banned outright in 2010.
The caviar industry has since shifted to farming the fish across the globe, from China to Israel to Uruguay. France, Russia and the United States are also major producers.
While most consumers associate caviar with Russia, Agro Ittica points out that sturgeons were historically found in many parts of the world, including Italy.
"The sturgeon is closely intertwined with Italian history, you see it in Renaissance painting and even Roman sculptures," said Agro Ittica's export director John Giovannini, citing the writings of 15th century writer Bartolomeo Platina.
But "it disappeared from Italian rivers in the 1960s due to dams and pollution," he added.
Now 60,000 sturgeons swim in Agro Ittica's pools: white sturgeons from North America, the Adriatic and Siberia as well as the belugas that produce the largest eggs that made Caspian caviar famous.
A separate farm in the Ticino wildlife park to the west of Milan raises Russian sturgeon that produces smaller eggs used to make Osetra caviar, known for its nutty flavour.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Scrambled...please!
I actually prefer sturgeons smoked or BBQed to their eggs too.
Despite having lived my *entire* life (except for military service) within 20 miles of the Atlantic I've never been a seafood fan.A nice piece of chicken or beef is what makes me smile.
I know it is a matter of individual preferences, but personally I appreciate any available source of protein. One day I better like to have a steak, another day shrimp and so on.
"Agro Ittica Lombarda, it's the White House on Line 2. Someone named the Mooch is going to be in Washington this weekend and they need 200 pounds of your best caviar ASAP."
Do they have to kill the fish to get the eggs?
There's a discussion thread in Usenet's RFC about "pre-boiled" eggs that's been reintroduced in markets.
Heck, somebody was selling them peeled, even a while back, iirc.
I like caviar. Really only had the quality stuff two or three times, and that was a while ago. I'll buy lumpfish roe once or twice a year.
Haven't gotten around to trying the Louisiana variety yet.
A couple of companies are now working on 'correct' caviar -- when the fish nears egg-laying time, certain (very NON toxic) chemicals are introduced into the fish's diet, and another, different cycle of massaging obtains the eggs. This is not yet a popular method for 'industrial' production of caviar, but I imagine it will become one.
FReegards!
Poachers are usually killing them. Farmers and professional fishers aren’t, unless they don’t want to get a fish too.
Yes.
Unless they don’t want= unless they want
I didn’t know that, and think it’s really cool in terms of preserving established stocks. Caviar is one of my personal favorites.
The last time I had Caviar was Oktoberfest at Mountain Lake Resort in Virginia. Yum.
Yah. Why the hell kill the fish? Can you even imagine killing, say, a chicken to obtain one clutch of eggs and then having to go raise another chicken. The traditional harvesting dates back to AT LEAST the 1100s, and likely earlier, and I for one will not be sorry to see it gone (which it will be, for economic reasons and not PETA reasons).
This article appears to be a marketing/promotional piece for the company Agro Ittica Lombarda. Plus the fact that FARMING technique (sturgeon-friendly) didn’t start in Italy.
From a business perspective, it’s a matter of exports and market share, in that market, globally. Then, there is a matter of quality of product & its taste. Caviar “enthusiasts or connoisseurs” are comparatively a niche market; so far anyway.
Another interesting article, and an excerpt: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/28/the-globalization-of-caviar/?_r=0
“The unknown is whether sturgeon, which take 10 or more years to mature, will ever again be fished from the Caspian. But one can dream. Indeed, the Chinese Schrenki looks exactly like the translucent golden-grey Osetra of the deep waters of the Caspian. The firm, fatty texture of the eggs is the same. Its taste is nutty and stays long on the tongue. Perhaps because it is also so beautiful, it is the choice of France’s great chefs. But Higos, the taster at Kaviari, still remembers fine Iranian Beluga and Osetra from the days when he went to Iran to buy. “When the first box arrived, I said to myself, ‘Ah, Iran,’” Higos says of the Schrenki. “Alas, it’s not the taste of the golden caviar of the Caspian. I was very disappointed.””
I don’t like caviar (of any kind), by the way.
I’ve never tried caviar but some friends of mine have. As the team was leaving Tehran in 1975, some of the teamies bought some from the individual vendors hanging around the departure concourse at Mehrabad, so they could eat caviar and not eat the PANAM lunch.
I’ve tried caviar a few times in my life. It’s salty (I don’t mind the salt) but kinda ‘pops’ in your mouth - don’t like it.
During those times I’d imagine wasn’t expensive there. Caviar typically has always been more popular around the Northern provinces of the Persian side of the Caspian Sea.
Well, airplane food is not my favorite either.
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