UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: A new caviar farm in the UAE hopes to satisfy the growing global demand for luxury foods

Record ID: 771678

  • Title: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: A new caviar farm in the UAE hopes to satisfy the growing global demand for luxury foods
  • Date: 18th July 2011
  • Summary: ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (RECENT) (REUTERS) ROYAL CAVIAR GROUP COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, ROBERT HARPER, WALKING AROUND PLANT (SOUNDBITE) (English) ROYAL CAVIAR GROUP COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR, ROBERT HARPER, SAYING "China is a rapidly growing caviar market. As the wealthy classes increase in China, they have a desire to purchase high-end products like caviar, so we see China
  • Embargoed: 2nd August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates
  • Country: United Arab Emirates
  • Topics: Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVA71QNVJXUAH2Z0OGU8PR00OBQK
  • Story Text: Despite the downturn in the global economy, caviar, it seems, is still on the menu.
    As the demand for luxury goods surges, a new caviar farm in the United Arab Emirates is aiming to produce over 30 tonnes of black eggs for the global market each year.
    The Royal Caviar Company has built its fish breeding and pisciculture factory in an industrial zone of the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. The 50,000 square metre facility currently holds 18 tonnes of fish, with a further 124 tonnes expected to arrive later this year.
    "We will hopefully be able to produce 35 tonnes of caviar annually. It will hopefully satisfy ten percent of global demand," said plant production manager, Muhaned Abu Awad, standing in a hatchery where dozens of water tanks were awaiting the fish.
    Owned by Bin Salem Holding, one of the UAE's largest family-owned groups of companies, Royal Caviar plans to start retail production of the luxury delicacy in the second half of 2012 and to sell almost half of its output to local clients.
    The luxury market in the UAE is surging again after the global financial crisis and Dubai's debt woes soured the appetite of its high-end clientele.
    But while connoisseurs spend up to $10,000 USD per kilogramme for Beluga caviar, the most expensive type, the UAE-produced caviar will cost between four and six US dollars per gramme.
    Royal Caviar's commercial director, Robert Harper, says the UAE alone has an estimated demand of 14 tonnes of caviar per year, although global demand for the delicacy is far greater.
    "China is a rapidly growing caviar market. As the wealthy classes increase in China, they have a desire to purchase high-end products like caviar, so we see China as a definitely emerging market, and of course the Russian market is historically a huge market as well. By our estimates, however, North America is the largest market," he said.
    Caviar consists of unfertilised sturgeon roe and the delicacy has traditionally been sourced from the Caspian Sea and Black Sea, with Russia and Iran being some of the world's largest producers.
    The Caspian Sea has four-fifths of the world's wild sturgeon reserves, but stocks have declined because of poaching and illegal trade. Beluga numbers in the Caspian have fallen 90 percent since 1986, while Russian Osetra and Sevruga face extinction.
    To counter the trend, Royal Caviar says it aims to produce sustainably sourced caviar.
    "What we intend to do, over time, is reintroduce back into the wild some of the caviar, I am sorry, some of the sturgeon that we have raised right here in our farm, so in the long run, we will actually, in a lot of different ways, have a very, very positive effect on an otherwise dangerous and endangered environmental situation," said Harper.
    The company says it also intends to recycle 90 percent of its water, using the rest for irrigation, while fish remains will be used as fertiliser, according to Abu Awad.
    To detect the presence of caviar, the female fish undergo an ultrasound test at around four years old. The results can either show no eggs, white eggs, grey eggs, or black eggs - which is caviar.
    The delicacy is traditionally not served with metal utensils to avoid giving it a metallic taste.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register