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.