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  WWF 3 Jan 06
International caviar trade suspended

Channel NewsAsia 4 Jan 06
Caviar trade frozen to protect endangered sturgeon
AFP

PlanetArk 4 Jan 06
UN Moves to Block 2006 Caspian Sea Caviar Exports
Story by Richard Waddington

GENEVA - The United Nations on Tuesday blocked caviar exports until producer countries around the Caspian and Black Seas gave better information on stock levels and illegal sales of the highly prized delicacy.

The UN's specialist agency in endangered species withheld export quotas for countries such as Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran and Kazakhstan, which last year were able to ship to the international market 105 tonnes of caviar and other products related to the sturgeon fish.

The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) 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 CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers.

"To do this they must also make full allowance for the amount of fish caught illegally," he added in a statement.

Industry officials say that the black market in caviar is about the same as the legal market at some 100 tonnes a year. Environmentalists estimate that Caspian Sea stocks of sturgeon, whose eggs make caviar, have plunged some 90 percent since the late 1970s due to overfishing - legal and illegal.

They welcomed CITES' move, the latest in a series of steps to regulate caviar trade from the big producing areas, including the Heilongjiang/Amur River on the Sino-Russian border.

CITES' 169 member states have the power to ban any state that flouts the rules from trading in an endangered species.

"Sturgeon has 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. It is long overdue," said Ellen Pikitch, spokeswoman for the Caviar Emptor Coalition.

COMING DOWN

Armen Petrossian, president of the Paris-based Petrossian company which controls about 10-15 percent of the legal market, said that the quota suspension came at a time when "there is no catch and no market."

The fishing season starts in late February, while the biggest time for sales is around Christmas. 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," CITES chief scientist David Morgan told Reuters. The agency needed a clearer idea of how the quota requests were arrived at before giving the go-ahead to further exports to major markets in the European Union 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 euros ($2,400-$7,132) per one kg (2.2 lb), had been bought and sold legally.

"The real problem is the growing illegal market," said Petrossian. "No country in Europe is really making an effort to stop it," he added. CITES' member states have set strict conditions for caviar exports, including a prior accord between producers on amounts, a stock assessment and management plan.

Channel NewsAsia 4 Jan 06
Caviar trade frozen to protect endangered sturgeon
AFP

GENEVA : A United Nations body on Tuesday slapped a freeze on exports of caviar from wild sturgeon, saying the move was essential to protect the endangered fish that produces the gourmet eggs.

It is now up to exporting nations to come forward with new proposals if they want to restart the money-spinning commerce. Every year, the Convention on International Trade in Engandered Species (CITES) asks caviar producing countries for a quota for the following year's catch.

CITES, a UN organization grouping 169 countries, said it could not approve the 2006 quotas proposed by major exporting nations, saying they "may not fully reflect the reductions in stocks or make sufficient allowance for illegal fishing."

"Since the CITES system only allows sturgeon products to be exported during the year in which they are harvested and processed, as of now it is not possible to export caviar and other sturgeon products from shared stocks," the organisation said.

It was referring to natural habitats shared between several nations, mainly the five around the Caspian Sea: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.

Fish-farmed sturgeon are unaffected. Officials at the UN organisation said CITES could end the freeze if it received satisfactory new proposals but did not give a timetable.

But an Iranian official said CITES had asked for more details by January 15, and denied that the organisation's move amounted to a formal ban. To have its quota approved, according to CITES rules, a government must show that trade is "not detrimental to the long-term survival of the species."

"We're hoping, but the problems run deep," David Morgan, head of the CITES scientific division. "The socioeconomic conditions on the ground are difficult. The governments have the will to fight illegal fishing, but the temptation is big in relatively poor countries," Morgan added.

CITES first imposed caviar trade controls in 1998, after a decline in sturgeon stocks following the break up of the Soviet Union. The end of communist-era restrictions spurred illegal fishing and raised fears among environmentalists that sturgeon would be wiped out.

"The commercial extinction of sturgeon is a certainty and is coming soon" if things continue at the current pace, warned Morgan. The Caspian is the source of 90 percent of the world's caviar and was already hit with a temporary ban in 2001.

Contraband caviar is likely to represent "several times the quantity sold legally," said Morgan.

Aside from the Caspian, CITES pointed to "serious population declines" of sturgeon in shared fishing grounds in the Black Sea and the lower Danube River, where producers include Romania and Bulgaria, and the Amur-Heilongjiang River, which is shared between Russia and China.

According to Stephanie Theile of the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, "a permanent ban would not be a good thing." "What we need is sustainable trade in sturgeon products," she told AFP, noting a call last month by Russian authorities for a state monopoly on sturgeon. "The Russians have acknowledged publicly that they have a big problem on their domestic market," Theile said.

CITES also pointed to importers, saying they "must ensure that all imports are from legal sources, and they must establish registration systems for their domestic processing and repackaging plants and rules for the labeling of repackaged caviar."

Many countries have failed to act, it said. The EU still doesn't have a new labeling system, despite a 2004 deadline. "There's probably a lack of awareness from the Europeans about the problems we have with illegal trade," said Theile. According to authorities in France -- Western Europe's top caviar market -- a suspected 90 percent of caviar sold there is contraband. In September the United States said it was suspending imports of highly prized beluga caviar after complaining of inaction by Caspian states.

The WWF conservation group on Tuesday cautioned that international action isn't enough, saying that domestic consumption also drives poaching particularly in Russia. - AFP /dt

WWF 3 Jan 06
International caviar trade suspended

Gland, Switzerland – WWF welcomes a recent announcement by the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) to not approve 2006 caviar export quotas for the Caspian Sea basin, agreeing that it is vital that caviar exporting countries provide the scientific basis to assess the sustainability of their sturgeon stocks.

"WWF welcomes this strong action by the CITES Secretariat and hopes that it will help preserve the sturgeon for future generations,” said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF's Global Species Programme.

"Sturgeon have been in dire straits for some time and it has been clear that something drastic had to be done to stop the rampant trade in illegal caviar and to ensure that the legal trade is sustainable and properly regulated."

Around 60 per cent of the caviar that is traded legally each year is imported by western European countries. Most of the caviar in the European market comes from Iran and the Russian Federation, the world’s largest exporters. The annual retail value of the global caviar trade is likely to be as high as several hundred million Euros, with 100g of the exclusive Beluga caviar costing as much as €600 for example.

In accordance with CITES Appendix II, export permits (and quotas) should only be issued if they are based on sound science, ensuring that the trade is sustainable. WWF also shares the concerns about the high levels of illegal trade.

It is vital that exporting and importing countries are vigilant in terms of enforcement, as well as in terms of implementation of the CITES labelling requirements. “WWF also calls on caviar producing and importing countries to help wipe out the illegal trade in caviar with tough enforcement measures, including anti-poaching efforts and implementation of the CITES labelling requirements," Lieberman added.

Of particular note is the CITES Secretariat's call for importing countries — such as the European Union and the United States — to meet their obligations and fully implement the measures they have agreed to in order to ensure that imports are from legal sources, and with proper registration and labelling.

Under the CITES caviar labelling system, all caviar products need to incorporate non-reusable labels sealing the container and containing information such as the source of the caviar, its country of origin or re-packaging, the code of the processing plant or CITES permit numbers.

This would not only apply to exported and re-exported caviar shipments, but also to all caviar tins, jars and other primary containers sold to the public in retail outlets in domestic markets.

According to CITES, the information recently provided by the sturgeon-exporting countries bordering the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea/lower Danube River, and the Heilongjiang/Amur River on the Sino-Russian border indicates that many of the sturgeon species in these shared fishing grounds are suffering serious population declines.

The Secretariat is concerned that the proposed quotas, while lower than for previous years, may not fully reflect the reductions in stocks or make sufficient allowance for illegal fishing.

"It is important that efforts are taken to ensure the conservation of all Eurasian populations of the ten species of sturgeon, and that actions are taken by all the relevant range States of the Amur River, Sea of Azov, Black Sea and Caspian Sea," Lieberman said.
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