Russia Seizes Half Tonne of Contraband Caviar
Date: 25-Sep-07
Country: RUSSIA
Author: Chris Baldwin
Following a tip-off, police intercepted the 460 kg (1,1014
lb) of caviar at Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow, where it was
flown from Khabarovsk in Russia's Far East, said Yuri Sinyutin,
a spokesman for the ministry's economic safety department.
"In order to get this much black caviar, poachers caught and
destroyed over 23 tonnes of sturgeon, themselves worth around 10
million roubles (US$400,000)," said Sinyutin.
Environmentalists say sturgeon fish, from which caviar is
produced, are on the verge of extinction.
Russian television pictures showed the caviar stored in
metal and plastic buckets wrapped in rubbish bags. Sinyutin said
it was transported without proper documents, stored in
unsanitary conditions, and came from illegally-caught fish.
Overfishing, poaching, pollution, poor management and
corrupt law enforcement have cut sturgeon stocks so severely
that experts say the beluga species is on the verge of
extinction after falling 90 percent in the past 20 years.
Beluga caviar, a symbol of ostentatious wealth and dining
luxury, costs about US$1,800 for 1 kg in Moscow markets, versus
3,700 British pounds (US$7,499) in London.
Russia's first Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, a
leading contender for president in 2008, last Friday spoke
favourably for a sturgeon fishing ban. He said he could live
without the delicacy if a ban helped replenish stocks.