Beluga back on market as caviar export quotas set

Fri Jul 23, 2010 5:38pm BST

* Five states including Iran and Russia agree export quotas

* Nearly 81 tonnes on offer, including 3 tonnes of Beluga

* Export quantities lower than in 2008, CITES says

(Adds details, beluga, sevruga and osetra quotas)

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - Iran, Russia and three former Soviet republics have agreed tight export quotas for wild caviar from the Caspian Sea for 2010, including 3 tonnes of prized beluga, a United Nations scientific agency said on Friday.

The accord, clinched at a meeting in Tehran, ends a de facto international trade ban on wild caviar and other sturgeon products from the five countries after their failure to reach agreement last year.

"The quantities that can be exported are lower than in 2008, when export quotas were last published," the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) said in a statement.

Under the new quotas, nearly 81 tonnes of the delicacy can be exported, including 3 tonnes of beluga, 17 tonnes of sevruga and 27 tonnes of osetra. The sum is 5 tonnes less than in 2008, according to CITES spokesman Juan-Carlos Vasquez.

"They are not huge differences but the trend is going down," he told Reuters.

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are the three other Caspian Sea countries, although Turkmenistan normally exports through Kazakhstan as it is not party to the CITES treaty.

The Caspian Sea, the source of four-fifths of the world's black caviar, has been hit by a vast decline in sturgeon stocks due to poaching and illegal trade.

The agreement covers six wild sturgeon species, including huso huso which produces beluga caviar, the most expensive. All six are listed on CITES' Appendix II which means they are not considered endangered species but international trade in them must be regulated on a scientific basis.

Iran's quota for beluga is to fall to 800 kilos from 1,000 in 2008, while Kazakhstan's quota falls to 1,500 kilos from 1,700 and Azerbaijan's drops to zero from 300 kilos previously.

High levels of poaching and illegal trade in the Caspian led to a temporary ban on international trade in wild caviar and other sturgeon products in 2001. At the time CITES estimated that illegal trade was ten times greater than legal trade.

This forced Caspian Sea countries to agree export quotas the following year, which they have done annually except for 2006 and 2009, Vasquez said.

To have their proposed quotas published, countries with shared sturgeon stocks must agree amongst themselves on catch and export quotas based on scientific surveys of the stocks, according to CITES, a Swiss-based treaty body which regulates international trade in wildlife.

"They must also adopt a regional conservation strategy, combat illegal fishing and provide details of the scientific data used to establish the catch and export quotas," it said.

Countries sharing the Black Sea and Lower Danube sturgeon stocks -- Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia -- and the Heilongjiang/ Amur River population (China and the Russian Federation) have yet to inform CITES about their quotas for this year, it said.

The new quotas run from March 1, 2010 to Feb. 28, 2011, reflecting the fishing season. (Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Jon Loades-Carter)

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