UN: The United Nations has effectively blocked caviar exports until producer countries around the Caspian and Black seas give better information on stock levels and illegal sales of the highly prized delicacy.
The UN's specialist agency in endangered species yesterday withheld export quotas for countries such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan, which last year were able to ship 105 tonnes of caviar and other sturgeon products to the international market.
The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora said it was worried that quota requests for this year - which it did not detail - might be too high in view of falling fish reserves.
"Countries wishing to export sturgeon products . . . must demonstrate that their proposed catch and export quotas reflect current population trends," said secretary-general Willem Wijnstekers. "To do this they must also make full allowance for the amount of fish caught illegally."
Environmentalists estimate that Caspian Sea stocks of sturgeon, whose eggs make caviar, have plunged some 90 per cent since the late 1970s due to overfishing - legal and illegal.
They welcomed the convention's move, the latest in a series of steps to regulate the caviar trade from the big producing areas, including the Heilongjiang/Amur river on the Sino-Russian border. Its 169 member states have the power to ban any state that flouts the rules from trading in an endangered species.
"Sturgeon have been in dire straits for some time, and it has been clear that something drastic had to be done," Dr Susan Lieberman, director of WWF's Global Species Programme, said in a statement. "We think it is great news, long overdue," said Ellen Pikitch, spokeswoman for the Caviar Emptor Coalition.
Officials said quotas sought for 2006 were below those of 2005, which in turn fell from the 147 tonnes granted in 2004. It is not known how much caviar was actually exported in 2005.
"The export quota has been coming down, but so too has the population of the species," the convention's chief scientist, David Morgan, said.
The agency said it needed a clearer idea of how quota requests were arrived at before giving the go-ahead to further exports to major markets in the EU and the United States.
It also called on importing countries to do more to ensure that all caviar, which retails at €2,000-€6,000 ($2,400-$7,150) a kg, had been bought legally.
"If someone finds caviar that it is too cheap, then it is probably illegal," Ms Pikitch said.
The UN agency has set strict conditions for caviar exports, including a prior accord between producers on amounts, a stock assessment and a management plan. As the delicacy has a shelf- life of a few months, the impact on consumers may not be immediate if importers have stocks.