Where is black caviar produced? Alexander Novikov: “Black caviar is brought from China, repackaged and labeled “Made in Russia.” — Not bad, but not exorbitant

Text: Yu. Kitashin, O. Kitashin, A. Kuznetsov

THE MAIN SOURCE OF SUPPLY OF STURGEON AND BLACK CAVIAR TO THE WORLD MARKET HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CASPIAN SEA. IRAN AND RUSSIA WERE RIGHTLY CONSIDERED AS THE MAIN PLAYERS IN THIS INDUSTRY. HOWEVER, TODAY THE SITUATION IN THIS MARKET HAS CHANGED SIGNIFICANTLY

Historically, until 1991, Russia was a key player in the world in sturgeon fishing and export of caviar products. IN best years Our country caught up to 28 thousand tons of sturgeon fish for domestic needs and produced up to 2-2.8 thousand tons of caviar. At the same time, the world export market for this product exceeded 570 tons per year. The Caspian Sea produced 90 percent of all caviar exported, of which on average stellate sturgeon caviar accounted for 50.6 percent, Russian sturgeon caviar - 38.5 percent, and beluga caviar - 9.9 percent.

BREAK OUT OF THE SHADOW

At the end of the 20th century, caviar smuggling in the world reached unprecedented levels. In this regard, CITES - the UN Committee on International Trade in Endangered Species - has limited the fishing of sturgeon and the export of black caviar to Russia and all Caspian countries former USSR. The only state in this region that was not affected by the ban was Iran. By the end of the 90s of the last century, this country significantly reduced the production of black caviar from 80 tons to 23 tons in 2005-2006. A significant event in the approaching changes in the sturgeon industry and its production in the Caspian Sea was the bankruptcy in 2004 of a state-owned Iranian company that supplied sturgeon caviar and meat for export. The decline in legal production of these types of products in the Caspian Sea has created the illusion that the niche of sturgeon caviar and meat is free, and it can be filled with farm products.

During this period in different countries world - in France, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada, China, Uruguay, Spain, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and others, more than 136 farms were created to breed sturgeon fish in order to obtain edible caviar from it.

STAGNATATION OF SHADOW TURNOVER

Today, the legal turnover of black caviar on the global foreign market is approximately 350-370 tons per year, while its capacity continues to be estimated by experts at 1000 tons per year. Poachers from Russia alone supply $400-450 million worth of black caviar annually to the world market, which equates to approximately 400-500 tons of caviar. The Russian market additionally accounts for 225-320 tons of illegal caviar. According to various sources, more than 15 tons of caviar are now supplied to Moscow alone every month.

Observations of the Russian caviar market show that the domestic market has fallen from 410 tons over the past four years to 260 tons of illegal caviar. This trend indirectly confirms the presence of serious problems with the sturgeon stock in the Caspian Sea. Also, in recent years, caviar from the Siberian regions and the Far East has begun to enter the illegal domestic market, which confirms the narrowing of the market for Caspian caviar. A number of companies operating long time with smuggling, they began to leave the shadow area for legal business. This situation can be characterized as stagnant for the illegal trade in black caviar. Gradually, caviar from various countries around the world began to enter the domestic market, which indirectly confirms the trend of this sector moving towards a legal direction and a large capacity for this product in Russia.

Table 1. Import of sturgeon caviar to Russia

ILLUSION OF QUALITY

Today there are quite a lot of publications in the press on the presence of large volumes of illegal caviar on the world and Russian markets. Comparing the figures given and analyzing data from different analytical companies, the volume of illegal caviar is only Russian market can be estimated at 400-500 tons. If we take the entire world volume, then it is about 700-800 tons.

Over the past three years, illegal caviar has become of significantly worse quality: it has lost shades of yellow, gray, green and brown flowers with egg diameter 3-4 mm. Nowadays, black caviar shades predominate, with the diameter of the offered caviar being 2.4-2.9 mm. This is a sign of the replacement of sturgeon caviar, previously supplied from the Caspian Sea, with a product imported from the Siberian regions. The brands of legal sturgeon caviar on offer include the names “Classic”, “Premium”, “Tender”, “Sturgeon Caviar”, “Rozhdestvenskaya” and the like. These are signs that the market has mixed caviar from sterlet, Siberian sturgeon and various hybrids. Usually this caviar is of low quality.

Today in Russia there are about 50 sturgeon farms that breed valuable species of fish. Of these, only six produce caviar. What are others doing? Law enforcement agencies have every reason to believe that some of them were created exclusively for the supply of illegal caviar to the Russian and world markets.

Table 2. Filling the Russian market with sturgeon caviar

PRICE IS STABLE

The bulk of sturgeon caviar comes from the illegal sector. Naturally, the legal market, which today accounts for 6-9 percent of the volume of caviar sold, will adjust its pricing to the prices of the illegal market. Thus, the price of an illegal product in Astrakhan is 16-22.4 thousand rubles per kilogram. In Moscow, you can buy it from main dealers for 30-32 thousand rubles per kilogram. Customers buy it from small dealers at prices ranging from 34 to 40 thousand rubles per kilogram.

In chain stores in Moscow, prices for legal caviar are at the level of 52-54 thousand rubles per kilogram of products offered. If we subtract the margin of chain stores from these prices, which is about 18-20 percent of the sales price, then we will get approximate average prices for sturgeon caviar on the shadow market. Why, with a decrease in the supply of sturgeon caviar on the Russian market, is there practically no increase in sales prices? The answer to this question is simple and logical: the quality of caviar is falling, and some customers stop buying it. Therefore, the price level has reached its maximum for the main client of this cluster.

For many, there is nothing new in the above assessments. But these indicators are important in understanding how the farmed caviar industry should develop in the world and in Russia. The obvious degradation of the illegal caviar market in Russia in terms of quality and volumes of possible sales gives some optimism in the development of farm sturgeon farming.

Caviar production technology This technology involves the production of caviar by the slaughter method, the use of a minimum amount of salt and canning without pasteurization. Comparison of black caviar production technologies

Thanks to the technologies used we produce caviar all year round . Therefore, even in winter you can enjoy the taste of fresh, real black caviar.

All fish undergo two months of cleaning in running water to eliminate foreign odors and improve the quality of caviar.

The raw materials and materials used for the production of our granular caviar comply with the safety rules, regulations and hygienic standards in force in the Russian Federation.

Technology "From egg to egg"

The plant operates in a closed caviar production cycle. We distribute the resulting fry into two types - for slaughter and for broodstock. The former are grown to obtain caviar for sale, the latter to replenish the herd.

This technology makes it possible to replenish the sturgeon population.

Detailed diagram of caviar production and fish farming on the factory premises Live egg fish from the wintering complex are served for washing, and then for operating table for removing ovaries. The percentage of slaughter caviar obtained usually does not exceed 9 - 11% of the weight of the fish. The eggs from each fish are collected in a separate vase and transferred through a transfer window to the caviar workshop for further processing.

Fish after slaughter Upon transfer, the yastyki are weighed. After weighing, the caviar is sorted by maturity, color, egg size, shell strength, smell, taste. Next, the joints are punched through a screen to remove the films.

Caviar “grain” is washed in clean chilled water at a temperature of 5ºC to 10ºC to remove blood clots, burst eggs and pieces of film. The washed caviar is quickly transferred to a sieve and placed to drain the water, and then transferred to salting.

Punching the joints through a screen to remove films To salt caviar, we use a salt mixture with the food additive Liv-1 (including E200). Salt for each portion of caviar is weighed separately. Master caviar installs salt dosage ranging from 3 to 3.8%.

Salting caviar After salting, the caviar is immediately packaged in glass or varnished metal jars. Jars filled with caviar are hermetically sealed using a vacuum sealing machine.

Then the jars of caviar are inspected, and after wiping and labeling, they are sent for packaging.

A label containing the required information is affixed to the bottom of each jar:

• Sturgeon caviar
• Unpasteurized aquaculture products
• Ingredients: caviar, salt, food additive “Liv-1 (including E200)”
• Net weight: from 30 to 1000 grams
• Nutritional value per 100 g of product: protein - 28 g, fat - 14 g, calorie content - 238 kcal
• Manufactured and packaged (decade, month, year)
• Shelf life - 8 months. At storage temperatures from 0 to -4 degrees C
• Vacuum packed.
• TU-9264-001-82711564-12

Caviar is packaged in thermal boxes with gaskets to prevent violation of the hermetic integrity of the jars with caviar.

In case of delivery by courier service, cold plates are placed in a thermal box with jars of caviar to maintain a low temperature during transportation.

“Black caviar for the poor”: why the Chinese delicacy filled the Russian market

Two cans of black caviar out of three on the Russian market are of Chinese origin. This opinion is shared by former employee of the Federal Fisheries Agency Alexander Savelyev and the president of the Union of Sturgeon Breeders of the Russian Federation Alexander Novikov. Rosselkhoznadzor thinks differently. How much Chinese black caviar is actually on domestic shelves and how can Russians find a quality product for New Year's table, understood “360”.

Scale of disaster

The former head of the public relations center of the Federal Fisheries Agency, Alexander Savelyev, told “360” about the dominance of Chinese black caviar on the Russian market. According to the expert, two out of three cans contain caviar from the Middle Kingdom, regardless of what is written on the packaging. Most black caviar comes to us illegally and is packaged in jars labeled “Made in Russia,” although some enterprises import it completely legally. According to Savelyev, employees of the Federal Security Service estimate the black market for such caviar in Russia at one and a half billion dollars.

Photo: RIA Novosti / Sergey Malgavko

In China, a kilogram of black caviar can be bought for eight dollars (about 500 rubles). This price is explained by savings on production. Chinese producers do not grow sturgeon in ideal conditions and give the fish cheap food with antibiotics and growth hormones. However, it cannot be said that there is no high-quality black caviar in China at all. For example, the Kaluga Queen enterprise produces a good product on a huge scale - about 60 tons per year. In general, China produces about two thousand tons of the delicacy annually. For comparison, all Russian enterprises produce only 40–45 tons of black caviar per year.

In principle, Russian sturgeon farms have no chance of competing with them. In more northern latitudes, growing sturgeon is completely unprofitable. Moreover, with an average retail price on the Russian market of 35–45 thousand rubles, buying it in China for 8–10 thousand is much more profitable. Chinese black caviar not only killed the sturgeon industry in Russia, it even undermined poaching. There is no point in doing it, because it is easier and much more profitable to buy in China, bring here and sell. On the Internet huge amount offers for the sale of jars for black caviar. The question arises - why are they selling so many of them?

Alexander Savelyev.

A former employee of the Federal Fisheries Agency named the ways in which interested parties continue to make a killing in the sale of illegal black caviar from China. From September 1, 2017, technical regulations on the safety of fish and fish products were to come into effect in Russia. The document was supposed to help ordinary consumers find out what kind of product they were buying, where it was obtained and when exactly. However, the regulation never came into effect. From January 1, the country planned to begin electronic veterinary certification of fish products, however, this project has not yet been implemented.

Speculators, in particular greedy traders from the Fishing Union, lobbied and delayed the entry into force of this veterinary certification for another six months. Thus, those who are engaged in this extremely profitable business have another six months to feel very at ease. They can pass taxes and fees past the state, but the state has nothing to do with it. And the buyer with this product acquires the risk of becoming infected with at least E. coli

Alexander Savelyev.

Rosselkhoznadzor specialists did not agree with the expert. The agency published a refutation of Savelyev’s position and stated that the total volume of Chinese caviar in Russia does not exceed 25% of total imports. This figure decreased in 2017 compared to the previous year by 30%. In total, over the past year, 5.7 tons of black caviar were brought to Russia, which was carefully checked for compliance with various veterinary standards. sanitary standards. Savelyev is sure that with the publication the department only emphasizes the scale of the disaster.

"Pure deception"

The President of the Union of Sturgeon Breeders of Russia, Alexander Novikov, sided with Savelyev. He explained that it is extremely profitable to buy it illegally from China and resell it in Russia under the guise of domestic products. According to the contract, good black caviar is sold in the Middle Kingdom for $180–200 per kilogram. For cash, a kilogram can be bought for 50–80 dollars.

It gets into Russia across the border with China very easily. Then it comes to large cities, including Moscow. Paradoxically, the lion's share goes to Astrakhan, where it is repackaged by Astrakhan producers into Russian banks and passed off as their own. You can be sure that if you take three jars that say “Produced in Astrakhan”, two will contain Chinese caviar

Alexander Novikov.

Rosselkhoznadzor has issued permission to supply black caviar to Russia to about 150 Chinese enterprises, and the quality of the products of most of them leaves much to be desired. In addition to cheap feed, this is influenced by the difficult environmental situation - the fish live in not the cleanest environment. Because of this, the Chinese themselves do not buy fish products in the Middle Kingdom. At the same time, China produces about 50% of all aquaculture products in the world, but due to quality, practically does not export it to other countries. It is mainly bought in other Asian countries.

Photo: RIA Novosti / Vladimir Vyatkin

It is almost impossible to find out for sure what kind of black caviar is in the jar without laboratory tests. Novikov shared one way to recognize low-quality caviar. To do this, the consumer must turn the glass jar upside down and shake it slightly. If caviar begins to hang out in brine, a special brine, then it can safely be called low-quality. Most likely, all Chinese caviar will be like this. Novikov also advised not to buy Astrakhan caviar, which is mostly fake.

Our producers, of course, will suffer greatly from this. I am not against Chinese caviar, even if it is sold on the market, but it should be written there that it is caviar from China, and it should cost other money. You may laugh, but I think this is caviar for the poor. All this is pure deception, and, unfortunately, our state does not punish those people who do this

Alexander Novikov.

The real “black gold” of Russia was not oil, but black caviar

Export products of the Astrakhan fish canning and refrigeration plant, 1961

Black caviar is rightfully considered one of the most expensive and exquisite delicacies. It has long been considered a dish of Russian traditional cuisine all over the world. However, the majority of the population of Russia, as well as the entire former USSR, barely remembers its taste. Once upon a time, the only “black gold” of our country was not oil, but “sturgeon eggs” - this is what black caviar is called in ichthyology, the science of fish.

Black caviar is produced by sturgeon fish - sturgeon, beluga and stellate sturgeon. An adult beluga, not encountering natural predators other than humans that are dangerous to it on the Volga, lives longer than a century and reaches a weight of hundreds of kilograms. It is the largest freshwater fish on Globe. By the beginning of the 20th century, due to massive industrial fishing, the maximum age and size of belugas was halved.

According to geologists, the Caspian Sea appeared about 100 thousand centuries ago on the territory of the Eurasian continent. Even in our 21st century, the Caspian Sea provides 90% of all black caviar mined throughout the world. In the distant past, even before the start of industrial fishing, the biological resources of the Caspian Sea and the Volga River reached fantastic volumes and sizes.

Elite fish "almost equal to dolphins"

The ancient Greek historians Polybius and Strabo, who lived in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, mention the export from the Azov and Caspian regions of large sturgeon fish, “almost equal to dolphins.” In ancient Rome, sturgeon fish was considered an elite delicacy.

Black caviar, which reached Novgorod along river trade routes, has been mentioned since the 13th century. Since the 15th century, Volga caviar has been supplied to the court of the Grand Dukes of Moscow. The lower reaches of the Volga, abundant in sturgeon fish and black caviar, became part of the Russian state only in the middle of the 16th century, after Tsar Ivan the Terrible captured Kazan and the Astrakhan Khanate.

In 1554, Russian troops placed a new puppet khan on the throne of the Astrakhan Khanate, who pledged to pay tribute to the Russian Tsar. By that time, delicious fish and black caviar were already being consumed en masse in Moscow. Therefore, as part of the tribute, Ivan the Terrible obliged Khan Dervish-Ali to annually supply the royal treasury with 3,000 large beluga sturgeons and sturgeons, fresh and salted. Until the beginning of the last century, the average weight of sturgeon in the Volga reached 200 kilograms, so the size of the Astrakhan fish tribute to Moscow can be estimated at 400-600 tons of delicious fish annually.

Volga beluga weighing 72 pounds (1152 kg), exhibited in the Moscow store of merchant Bobkov, 1910.

In addition to the supply of fish, the agreement between Moscow and the dependent Astrakhan Khan also included the right of Russian people to catch Volga fish along the entire length of the river from Kazan to the Caspian Sea without paying tribute. Just two years later, the Astrakhan Khanate was liquidated, and the entire Volga, along its entire length, finally became a Russian river, and since then the most large share sturgeon and black caviar belonged to Russia.

"Arminska Ekra"

The scope of consumption of black caviar in pre-Petrine Rus' can be estimated from the data of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery of the early 17th century. On the eve of the Time of Troubles, 6 thousand sturgeon and stellate sturgeon and 600 poods (almost 10 tons) of black caviar were delivered to the monastery annually.

In 1669, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the father of the future Emperor Peter I, issued the first decree regulating fishing. By that time, sturgeon production on the Volga reached 50 thousand tons annually.

In addition to caviar, Volga fish supplied the whole of Russia with glue. In the Middle Ages, the best glue was considered to be fish glue made from sturgeon, which in Rus' was called “karluk”. Until the twentieth century, glue was made from processed swim bladders of sturgeon fish and was considered the best and most durable.

On average, one ton of sturgeon produced about 1 kilogram of dry fish glue, which was sold both to the domestic market and for export. By the end of the 17th century, about 300 pounds of such glue were made from sturgeon and beluga on the Volga. It is not difficult to calculate that to produce such a quantity it was necessary to kill fish with a total weight of almost 5 thousand tons. But it was worth it - European merchants willingly bought sturgeon glue at a price of 7 to 15 silver rubles per pound. That is, three kilograms of such glue cost the same as a good horse.

The personal physician of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the Englishman Samuel Collins, who lived in Moscow for nine years, described the technology by which the “Muscovites” prepared caviar from sturgeon fish. The extracted caviar is “cleaned, salted and placed in troughs so that its oily and fatty juices drain; then they put it in barrels and press it very hard until it becomes hard.” “Fresh salted”, as it was then called, “unpressed” caviar, according to Collins, was extremely tasty and was sold in large quantities, but quickly deteriorated.

Caviar extracted from belugas, according to the Englishman, was called Armenian in Rus'. “Arminska Ekra” - this is what the Englishman writes, explaining that Armenian merchants were the first to make it back in the days of the Golden Horde. Soon, “Armenian” caviar in Rus' was more often called “pressed”; it was this caviar that began to be actively sold to countries in the 17th century. Western Europe.

Western European diplomats who arrived in Moscow at that time were very interested in the caviar market and caviar prices. At the end of 1653, the Swedish trade representative in Moscow, Johann de Rhodes, sent an analytical report “A detailed report on the commerce taking place in Russia” to Stockholm.

Volga belugas, photo from the 20s of the 20th century.

The best quality caviar, “the best, pressed caviar,” as de Rhodes writes, was sent from Nizhny Novgorod on ships up the Volga to Yaroslavl, and from there through Vologda by carts on sleighs to Arkhangelsk. Here caviar was profitably sold to European merchants; payment was accepted exclusively silver coin. De Rhodes reports that in 1651-1653, 20 thousand pounds of “caviar” in 400 barrels were exported from Arkhangelsk. On the Russian domestic market, such a volume of caviar cost about 30 thousand rubles in silver. But for European merchants the prices were even higher - so in 1654, almost 12 pounds of caviar were sold for export abroad to a Dutch merchant at a price at least twice as expensive as on the domestic market.

"Caviar ships" from Muscovy

Already at the end of the 16th century, Giles Fletcher, the envoy of the English queen to the son of Ivan the Terrible, in his book “On the Russian State,” reports on the vast geography of the caviar trade from Russia: “French and Dutch merchants, and partly English ones, send a lot of caviar to Italy and Spain.” .

Since 1589, the Dutch merchant Marcus de Vogelaar organized deliveries of black caviar from Arkhangelsk across Europe to Italy. It was his company that marked the beginning of the mass export of Russian black caviar to the south of Western Europe. For example, it is known that in 1605, two ships of Vogelard took a large shipment of caviar in 124 barrels, that is, about 100 tons, from Arkhangelsk to Venice.

The increased demand of the Italian aristocracy and urban elites for black caviar had already formed by early XVII centuries. The Dutch envoy Isaac Massa, who was in Russia in 1601-1609, wrote about the Italians’ passion for black caviar, obtained from sturgeon caught on the Volga. Archives of that century preserved the correspondence of the Dukes of Tuscany with Tsars Boris Godunov and later with Alexei Mikhailovich about purchases of black caviar by Italian merchants.

In 1654, Florentine merchants sent a letter to Moscow with a request to provide them with a “caviar farm-out” for five years, promising to buy 400 barrels of caviar annually in the port of Arkhangelsk. However, the tsarist government chose to maintain the caviar trade with already proven merchants from Holland. In Russian diplomatic documents of that time, Dutch ships sailing from Arkhangelsk to Italy were directly called “caviar ships.”

During the reign of the first tsar from the Romanov dynasty, Mikhail Fedorovich, caviar trade with foreigners became a state monopoly. From the Volga region to the Russian North, caviar was transported by specially selected merchants, members of the privileged “Merchant Chamber”, which worked under the leadership of the “Order of the Great Treasury,” that is, the Ministry of Finance of the first kings of the Romanov dynasty.

The “Merchant Chamber” annually sent special convoys with Volga black caviar, Siberian sables and other “government goods” to Arkhangelsk before the arrival of foreign ships, goods on the trade of which a state monopoly was established. The right to “farm out,” that is, to purchase caviar, was granted to those foreign merchants who offered higher prices and larger volumes of purchases.

In 1676, the tsarist government established monopoly prices for black caviar for “overseas holidays” at three silver rubles per pood. That is, 16 kilograms of caviar for European buyers cost one and a half times more than the price of an average horse in Russia. But foreign merchants did not complain - in the 17th century they resold Russian caviar in European ports with a profit of 30 to 40%.

Beluga caught in Saratov region in 1937.

From the beginning of the reign of Peter I until 1702, the royal treasury sold black caviar to the west through the Hamburg merchant Farjus at a price of two and a half silver thalers per pood. The secretary of the Austrian embassy, ​​Johann-Georg Korb, who visited Russia in 1698, wrote: “Salted caviar, exported under the name cavyara in large vessels to overseas lands, is a rich item of trade.” According to Korb, Dutch merchants alone paid Russia 80 thousand silver coins annually for the right to export caviar.

Foreigners have more than once described the Russian delicacy with great interest. The English Count Charles Carlisle, who was ambassador to the Russian Tsar in 1664, later recalled: “A magnificent dish is prepared from the eggs of sturgeon, which is caught in the Volga, which they call caviar (ikary), and by the Italians, who love it very much, cavayar.” . The Russians harden this caviar and, having cooked it with salt for 10 or 12 days, eat it with lettuce, pepper, onion, oil and vinegar.”

Also in 1664, Nicolaas Witsen, an employee of the Dutch embassy in Moscow, describing the treats at the Tsar’s reception, especially noted black caviar and even pies with caviar. Georg Adam Schleissinger, a German traveler who visited Russia in 1684, describes caviar this way: “It is a good food for those who are accustomed to it, and most people keep caviar for treats. It is thinly sliced ​​into small circles and seasoned with vinegar, olive oil, onion and pepper. In the provinces, caviar is eaten immediately after being removed from the fish. It is prepared in the same way, only without olive oil. It's a delicacy."

"Caviar Kings" of Russia

The wars and reforms started by Peter I required significant expenses. In search of new sources of income for the royal treasury, the emperor turned to black caviar - from January 1704, a state monopoly was introduced not only on the import of caviar abroad, but also on all production and sale of caviar within Russia.

From now on, all fishing grounds were “taken into the treasury”, and they began to be farmed out at auction. For catching sturgeon without appropriate payments, the state was subject to a tenfold fine. In Astrakhan, a special “Fish Office” was created to manage the caviar fisheries. In Nizhny Novgorod, “sovereign labor managers” sorted the extracted caviar and distributed it to Arkhangelsk for export and to the domestic market - to Moscow and the Makaryevskaya Fair.

During the first quarter of the 18th century, that is, throughout the entire reign of Peter I, almost 80% of black caviar was exported. By decree of the Senate of March 2, 1725, all proceeds from the import of black caviar to Europe were ordered to be used to finance the Russian navy. In one decade, from 1722 to 1731, the treasury of the Russian Empire received 580,022 rubles from the sale of black caviar, sturgeon and fish glue abroad. Most of this huge sum at that time was the cost of caviar.

At the end of the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, all fisheries on the Volga near Astrakhan were handed over to the Kolomna merchant Sidor Popov, one of the richest merchants in Russia. For his monopoly, the merchant agreed to annually pay 9 thousand silver rubles to the treasury.

Taking advantage of his position, the merchant immediately inflated the prices for fish products, but not so much for caviar, but for fish glue, without which no manufacturing or handicraft production, from leather and shoe making to paper, could then do. If earlier fish glue “karluk” from sturgeon fish cost on the domestic market, depending on the quality, from 4 to 13 rubles 35 kopecks per pound, then the merchant Popov, after a year of his monopoly, raised prices four times - from 16 to 40 rubles per pound . The monopoly of the merchant Popov was abolished in 1763 by the new Empress Catherine II.

In 1762, caviar worth 12.5 thousand rubles was exported through the Arkhangelsk port, and almost 6 thousand rubles worth of silver was exported through the St. Petersburg port. At this time, caviar mined on the Volga began to be exported not only through the Baltic and White Sea, but also in a southern direction through land customs in Ukraine and the Temernikovsky port, as the future Rostov-on-Don was then called. From here, black caviar was sold to Austria-Hungary, Italy, Spain and Turkey.

Already in 1760, 11,063 pounds (177 tons) of caviar were exported from the Temernikov port through the Azov, Black and Mediterranean seas for sale abroad. By the end of the 18th century, the main trader of Astrakhan black caviar in the Black Sea region was a Russian merchant, Greek by nationality, Ivan Varvatsi, who, in addition to trading, served a lot in the Russian navy and was even awarded for heroism shown in the Battle of Chesma with the Turks. On the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, Varvatsi and other merchants exported Volga black caviar worth 300 thousand rubles annually from Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog.

Portrait of Ivan Andreevich Varvatsi by artist Vladimir Borovikovsky.

The Volga and Caspian Sea remained a source of sturgeon and black caviar for a long time. Since the reign of Emperor Alexander I and almost throughout XIX century The largest caviar miners in Russia were the merchant firm Sapozhnikov Brothers, founded by Pyotr Sapozhnikov and his sons, Alexey and Alexander. It is curious that the Saratov merchant Pyotr Sapozhnikov was the son of an Old Believer and an active participant in the Pugachev uprising, which did not prevent him from becoming the leading “caviar king” of Russia by the beginning of the 19th century.

The Sapozhnikov merchants paid Prince Alexander Kurakin, a personal friend of Emperor Paul I, for the rental of “fishing places” a fantastic amount for those times, from 380 to 450 thousand rubles annually. Kurakin spent this huge amount of money to buy precious stones, for which he was nicknamed the “Diamond Prince” in St. Petersburg.

In 1822, the merchant Sapozhnikov bought from the merchant Ivan Varvatsi the richest fishing industry in the Lower Volga near the village of Ikryanoye. By the middle of the 19th century, more than 20 fishing artels with a permanent workforce of over 15 thousand people worked for the merchant firm “Brothers Sapozhnikov”. All the fish caught by the Sapozhnikov artel were delivered to the processing site alive on special boats with slots for filling with water; they were towed by steamers. In total, the Sapozhnikov merchant clan owned 11 steamships and 550 such special boats. The annual turnover of the Sapozhnikov Brothers exceeded 10 million rubles per year. Every year their company caught at least 100 million sturgeon and beluga.

The largest documented beluga in the history of Russia was caught on the Volga near Astrakhan in 1827 - its weight was 90 pounds, that is, one and a half tons. On May 11, 1922, a female beluga weighing 1224 kilograms was caught in the Caspian Sea near the mouth of the Volga - almost 147 kilograms of black caviar were extracted from this fish. Nowadays, the cost of such a quantity of caviar on the market in Moscow will exceed the amount of 6 million rubles.

Black caviar in the 20th century

To store caviar and fish, special glaciers were prepared - huge caves dug on the banks of the Volga and Caspian Sea, which special workers filled with ice and snow during the winter. The Volga fishing industry called such glacier caves “exits” or “refrigerators.”

The Sapozhnikov Brothers were the first in Russia to use artificial freezing of fish. In 1904, they built a fish refrigerator with a volume of 192 tons in Astrakhan and at the same time exactly the same refrigerated warehouse in Moscow. From here, “Sapozhnikov’s” caviar came to Germany, Austria, Turkey, Greece and even North America.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the catch of beluga, the largest sturgeon fish in the Volga and Caspian Sea, reached its peak - from 1902 to 1907, from 10 to 15 thousand tons of beluga were caught annually. It was then that the stocks of this fish were undermined, which were never restored to their previous levels.

In total, at the beginning of the 20th century, Russian fishermen caught up to 40 thousand tons of sturgeon annually in the Caspian and Volga. Now the catch of delicious fish in the same region is two orders of magnitude less - only about 600 tons per year.

By the beginning of the 20th century, a lot of varieties and types of black caviar were distinguished depending on the fish and processing methods. Beluga was considered the best, followed by sturgeon and stellate sturgeon. Sturgeon caviar is considered better and is valued the higher, the larger and lighter the grains of the caviar.

Freshly salted “grainy” caviar was considered the highest quality, then “pressed”, “pressed”, “fried”. The cheapest was the so-called “yashtychnaya” or “bag” caviar. It was salted directly in the form in which it was extracted from the fish, that is, in the natural films-shells of the eggs, which were called “yastyki”.

According to statistics from 1913 Russian Empire then 1,177 thousand poods (almost 19 thousand tons) of sturgeon fish were caught - the catch was almost halved compared to the very beginning of the 20th century. The best “grainy” beluga caviar cost 3 rubles 20 kopecks per kilogram that year. The cost of pressed caviar, depending on the variety and quality, ranged from 80 kopecks to 1 ruble 80 kopecks per kilogram. For comparison, a loaf of black bread then cost 3-4 kopecks.

Portrait of the merchant Pyotr Semenovich Sapozhnikov by artist N. Argunov, 1802.

During the First World War and civil war sturgeon fishing declined sharply, which led to a slight increase in the fish population over the decade from 1914 to 1924. Therefore, the decade before World War II became one of the peaks of the sturgeon and caviar fisheries. The export of black caviar became an important source of foreign exchange for industrialization. For example, in 1929, 789 tons of black caviar worth $15 million were exported from the USSR - in 2014 prices this would be almost a billion modern dollars.

On May 3, 1926, in the Caspian Sea near the mouth of the Ural River, a 75-year-old female beluga weighing more than 1 ton and over 4 meters long was caught, containing 12 pounds, that is, 190 kilograms of caviar.

In terms of the number of sturgeon fish caught, the 30s of the 20th century reached the maximum level over the previous centuries, but in terms of the total mass of fish, the catches were lower than the catches of the beginning of the 20th century. This was due to the fact that previous generations of fishermen caught the oldest and largest fish. Compared to the beginning of the century, the average weight of beluga and sturgeon on the Volga and in the northern part of the Caspian Sea decreased by almost half by the end of the 30s.

If at the beginning of the 20th century the age of the oldest and largest belugas in catches was estimated at 100-120 years, then by 1940 it had halved. For this reason, the amount of caviar caught in relation to the weight of fish caught has also decreased. According to statistics, in 1926 the weight of caviar accounted for over 8% of the mass of fish caught, by 1935 it dropped to 4%, and by 1940 to 2.6%.

To save valuable varieties fisheries introduced limits on sturgeon fishing in 1938. During the Great Patriotic War catches of this fish in the USSR decreased 13 times compared to the beginning of the century to 3 thousand tons. The extracted black caviar was used mainly as a ration for military pilots and submariners, as a high-calorie and high-energy product.

In order to prevent the further disappearance of sturgeon, in 1962-65, strict measures were taken to limit and regulate fishing, first of all, they banned fishing gear and methods that led to the massive catch of “juvenile” sturgeon and other valuable fish. As a result, by the 1970s, the size and weight of sturgeon, stellate sturgeon and beluga caught on the Volga and Caspian Seas increased significantly, and the “caviar yield”, that is, the ratio of the mass of caviar to the weight of the fish, increased. Sturgeon catches in 1977 amounted to 29 thousand tons, that is, they almost reached the level of 1913.

Black caviar after the USSR

On the eve of its collapse in 1989, the USSR produced almost 1,366 tons of black caviar, over 90% of all black caviar produced in the world. Today, in restaurant prices for black caviar in the capitals of Western Europe, this amount of “black gold” will cost almost 11 billion dollars.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was not only a geopolitical, but also a real “caviar” catastrophe. Until 1991, the shores of the Caspian Sea belonged to only two states - the USSR and Iran, and our country included the majority, almost 90% of its water area. After the collapse of the USSR, the coast of the Caspian Sea already belongs to five states - the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.

Under the new, post-Soviet borders, the Russian Federation owns less than a third of the length of the Caspian coast that the USSR once owned. In 2000, Russia produced only 40 tons of black caviar - 34 times less than the USSR produced ten years earlier.

If in 1989 Soviet Union exported 141 tons of black caviar abroad, then in 2010 Russia exported 14 times less, only 10 tons. According to law enforcement agencies, another 60 tons of black caviar that year were sold abroad by smuggling, without paying taxes and duties.

The economic crisis that followed the collapse of the USSR and the almost uncontrollable rampant poaching reduced the sturgeon catch by 20 times over the course of 20 years. To preserve beluga stocks in Russia, since 2000 it was even necessary to completely ban its fishing.

The export of Russian black caviar is hampered, among other things, by the success of artificial sturgeon breeding abroad. Fisheries in Germany, France, the USA, Italy and Uruguay produce tens of tons of black caviar - many times more than is exported by Russia. For example, the Agroitica company in Italian Lombardy specializes in breeding eels and sturgeon; in 2007 it produced 37 tons of black caviar, which is almost four times more than all legal exports from the Russian Federation.

Based on restaurant prices in 2010, 1 kg of black caviar in Makhachkala cost 1 thousand dollars, in Moscow - 4 thousand, in New York - 8 thousand, in London - 20 thousand, in Courchevel - 25 thousand.

All this “factory” production of black caviar does not in any way cancel the elite position of this product and the extremely high prices, but does not at all contribute to Russia’s profits from the export of caviar from the Volga. The shadow turnover of the caviar business in Russia from the 90s to the present day reaches 92% of all sales of black caviar abroad and on the domestic market.

Since 2012, in order to preserve valuable fish species, by a joint decision of all Caspian states, commercial sturgeon fishing in the Caspian Sea has been prohibited for a period of 5 years. Today, legal black caviar, obtained from the wild, and not from artificially reared fish farms, is completely unavailable for sale.