Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Trade ban lifted on beluga caviar

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 6, 2007

GENEVA - A U.N. panel said Monday it had lifted trade bans on beluga and two other types of caviar, effectively ending a year-old embargo of one of the world's most prized delicacies.

Willem Wijnstekers, the head of the U.N.-sponsored conservation body CITES, said countries bordering the Caspian Sea had improved monitoring of caviar trading and would release millions of young fish into its waters, allowing limited trade to resume.

But he said the decision to grant Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Russia permission to export 4.15 tons of beluga must be accompanied by further moves to combat declining sturgeon stocks.

Environmentalists criticized the decision, saying it would be harmful.

Last year, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora refused to provide export quotas for nearly all types of caviar from the Caspian in order to help protect the endangered fish from which the eggs are taken. It eased restrictions on three other types of caviar in January.

Monday's announcement will also permit China and Russia to export about 3.5 tons of Amur sturgeon roe and 4.6 tons of Kaluga sturgeon roe caught in the Heilongjiang-Amur River basin shared by both countries.

[Last modified February 6, 2007, 00:59:13]