Caviar is making its way into Thailand’s fine-dining world. One Thai-Russian partnership is offering it for a more affordable price. A sturgeon farm in Hua Hin is now using high tech to “milk” sturgeon fish to extract their eggs, instead of killing them, which most farmers do. One tin of the farm’s caviar currently sells at a retail price of $230 to $832 per tin.
The farm, Thai Sturgeon Farm, supplies local distributor Caviar House. Thai Sturgeon Farm’s co-owner said the farm estimates it may produce up to two tonnes of caviar this year. With a tropical climate, sturgeons on the farm mature when they are six years old, as opposed to their original cold habitat in Russia, where they usually mature at age 11. The fish can live for up to 100 years, and keeping them alive for as long as possible helps keep the business sustainable, the co-owner said.
Michelin-starred chef, Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn, told AFP he thought the farm’s prices had “opened doors” for many chefs.
“The price is… more affordable, I would say, compared to the ones that we imported”.
During harvesting, fish are moved to the “winter room”, before their eggs are extracted. Even though the farm is only selling caviar within Thailand at the moment, it hopes to one day export the delicacy internationally.
But caviar farmers in Thailand have some countries giving them competition. France, Germany, China, Spain, the United States, Japan and Russia are major markets, but demand is fast growing in other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. China produces 84% of the world’s sturgeons, according to a European Commission report.
SOURCE: AFP