ZwyerCaviar NEWS

CAVIAR - The tide is turning

Earth�s regenerative capacity can no longer keep up with demand.
People are turning resources into waste 30% faster than nature can
turn waste back into resources. If we keep this kind of lifestyle,
in 20 years we will need two planets
or we should return to sustainability.

After 3 decades of caviar supply decline, the Caspian Sea is deadly
polluted and aquaculture farmed caviar is the only alternative.

In October 2008, a premium sustainable caviar brand was born!
Satisfy your desire for supreme emotions with ZwyerCavair.

ZwyerCaviar in audience from legendary chef Andr� Jaeger

In October we had the delight to meet André Jaeger, the legendary Swiss chef behind the Fischerzunft in Schaffhausen and proud brand ambassador of ZwyerCaviar. We talked about illegal caviar trades and the future of sturgeon aquafarms. And mostly about how to implement ZwyerCaviar into the realm of the Fischerzunft, which will feature very soon a special package which includes ZwyerCaviar!

ZwyerCaviar invites all to take this opportunity to end their own quest for caviar-happiness. Check in at the Fischerzunft, loose your senses through the seducing pieces of a master and enjoy the highly exclusive indulgence that only ZwyerCaviar can deliver.

Patoro: A luxurious gathering of Kings and Queens

On the 15th of October, we had the pleasure to test premium Flor de Sal Malassol caviar: the ZwyerCaviar.

It was held in the worlds biggest cigar lounge to date. In the holy rooms of Patoro in Olten, which had its grand opening on the 1st of october, 2008. For all the cigar aficionados living in or visiting Switzerland, definitely a worthwhile visit! Its owner, Patrick Martin, will give you a warm welcome.
By the way: make sure to taste their own premium cigar brand: Patoro. Surely a name to remember!

Caviar, Champagne and Cigars... for Kings & Queens.

Caviar meets the Master of wine

On the 20th of October a ZwyerCaviar delegation met with the swiss wine pope Philippe Schwander in a Restaurant in Zurich, Switzerland. Mr. Schwander receives not only high popularity within the swiss gastronomical scene due to his one-of-a-kind title �Master of Wine� within the swiss border, but rather because of his amazing knowledge about wine in general. He deserves it. And without it he would still be recognized as the Swiss �wine pope�. His reputation rockets high and steady.

This is why ZwyerCaviar is very proud to have Mr. Schwander convinced about our premium caviar - quality and brand. On this very evening we compared ZwyerCaviar with a caviar which originates from France. We came to the conclusion in unison, that the differences were remarkable and not justifying at all the small price range.

Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow 2009

ZwyerCaviar is co-sponsoring the Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow 2009

Come and experience a world of sport that combines strength, elegance, speed, pride and the traditional British love of fair play. Experience polo at its best!

The Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow is the world�s most prestigious winter polo tournament. Four high-goal teams with handicaps between 20 and 22 goals battle for the coveted Cartier Trophy on the frozen surface of Lake St. Moritz. Be there as the wiry, nimble polo ponies fly over the snow. Watch as the world�s top polo players from Argentina, Chile, the UK, Australia and other countries give of their best. For the four days of the tournament, there are two top-quality matches daily, culminating in the grand final on Sunday. These high-level encounters require the highest concentration, strength, finesse, courage and endurance � both from the ponies and their riders. The special conditions on snow, and the unaccustomed altitude of 1800 metres, place exceptional demands on man and animal alike.

The 25th Cartier Polo World Cup on Snow will take place
from 29 January - 1 February 2009

Check the website

A new life for caviar

In recent years those who enjoy caviar and its smooth, rich, and silky taste are inevitably involved in the restrictions and new trade quotas enforced every year, in order to protect the endangered wild sturgeons worldwide and mainly in the Caspian Sea (90% of worlds population). The first bans on producers from this region had the negative effective of arousing the illegal trade and black market of wild caviar. The predictions are that this trend will continue as a result of the recent announcement of the CITES from June 2008, to increase some countries quotas to export wild sturgeon caviar. The Science Daily, an online source of research news, quotes specific points from the interview with the Executive Director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science, Dr. Ellen Pikitch, who says:� we urge consumers to protest with their wallets by not purchasing any wild-caught caviar�. The CITES announcement foresees the export quotas for Caspian Sea sturgeon to remain the same as in 2007. Despite the fact that the quotas from the beginning of 2008 had set the permitted export slightly lower, additional rights have now been allocated to Turkmenistan (2,137 kg to be exported by Kazakhstan, and 40 kg by Russia). Quotas for Persian sturgeon caviar dropped to 37,000 kg from 38,000 kg and represent the only case in which a quota was voluntarily lowered.
(The Science Daily, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080530095456.htm

This is a clear sign that alternative ways of producing caviar have to be adopted and followed - which is the case with the recently awakened sturgeon farming sector, who maintain a constant supply of caviar and protect endangered wild species and ecosystems. However, farmed caviar demands exceptional care, coordination of resources, highly skilled personnel and continuous improvement of the environment and the techniques involved in the sturgeon breeding and caviar production process. It is a very competitive sector, with the endconsumers giving the ultimate votes.

We of ZwyerCaviar LLC are an independent enterprise run by three siblings and it is seated in the heart of the Appenzeller land where the pursuit of perfection is our guiding principle. We believe in under promising and over delivering. As an innovative company we are determined to succeed and differentiate ourselves in the highly competitive luxury food market in Switzerland and across Europe. We are socially and ecologically conscientious of everything we do. Our approach is led by sustainability.

Our family roots (Zwyer (zver) means 'beast' in Slavic) go back to the early days of Astrakhan - the home to the Volga Tatars. A city that has been named the �Pearl of the Caspian" in ancient times. The Mongol invasion into the heart of Europe during the 13th century is also known as the �Tatar invasion�. That�s how it is believed that the first Zwyers �members of the Golden Horde - found their way into the heart of Switzerland where the family has been living for over 7 centuries.

ZwyerCaviar is our Caspian Legacy - and the future of caviar.

The sustainable future of caviar

Sturgeon are one of the world�s oldest species going back 250 million years, having survived the dinosaurs. Instead of scales, five rows of large bony plates or shields (called scutes) cover the Sturgeon's leather-like skin. The scutes provide protection against predators and add to the fish's primitive appearance. Sturgeon are one of the most ancient groups of bony fishes, a relict from the Mesozoic era. These characteristics are known from fishes present during the Devonian period, which occurred 360-408 million years ago.

The best-known Sturgeon, the Beluga with its home in the Caspian Sea, is the largest known freshwater fish (the largest one on record weighed in at 2,175kg). The first written record of caviar can be found in the journals of Batu Khan (Ghengis Khan�s grandson) dating back to the 1240s.

Noticing the decline of this valuable resource, the old Soviet Union imposed very strict controls on caviar and learned how to spawn Sturgeon in the late eighteen hundreds, releasing the fingerlings back into the Caspian Sea. Unfortunately most of the eggs of the mature Sturgeon in the Caspian Sea are now non-fertile due to genetic malformation directly attributable to the high pollution levels.

It took 20 years of research, but in the early 1990s science finally found a way to successfully farm 2 smaller species of Sturgeon: a native of Siberia (acipenser baeri) in France and, in America, the native white Sturgeon (acipenser transmontanus). Farming enables complete control over the fish�s lifecycle and harvesting of the roe at the optimal time, guaranteeing a consistent quality and, best of all, without endangering the already depleted wild Sturgeon population.

Farming Sturgeon for caviar is a risky and expensive business demanding lots of patience as it takes 2 years before the young fish�s gender can be determined and after separating the males from the females (the males for meat and the females for caviar) it takes other 6 years for the female to carry her first set of eggs.

Esturiones del Rio Negro is so far the only Sturgeon farm in the southern hemisphere. It was built by Walter H. Alcalde Dayviere in Baygorria, the pristine Rio Negro, and with the help of the Russian Government (who identified this untouched ecosystem and perfect breeding location by using satellite technology). The Russians assisted with technical advice and farming techniques and supplied personnel and Russian Sturgeon breeding stock (imported from the Lena and Ob rivers in Siberia). Today, Esturiones del Rio Negro utilises raceways and pontoon-floating cages at the edge of the fastest flowing water with depths of up to 10m. Expert personnel include veterinaries, ichthyologists and above all the caviarmaster Roman Alcalde. The family run company is a success story with a very high impact and reputation in the US. Clients like Donald Trump, Hugh Heffner and the likes prove that they deliver nothing more but top quality caviar.

As we of ZwyerCaviar LLC inspect and grade each fish, we make distinctions between the merely superb Oscietra, and the truly outstanding one, which is hand selected to exclusively produce ZwyerCaviar. For ZwyerCaviar the roe is collected at its absolute peak of size, flavour, colour and texture, when the sturgeons are at their most mature state. For production we only use the finest ingredients, such as mineral water from the Patagonian Andes and Fleur de Sel from the Algarve, a novelty in the production of caviar. The availability of ZwyerCaviar is absolutely limited.

Farming is the only hope for caviar

A fish that can live for 150 years and grow up to six meters in length appears doomed to extinction. The beluga is one of the seven species of sturgeon living in the Caspian Sea. It's pointless to imagine any longer that the sturgeon can survive here naturally. Many respected environmentalists say there is no hope that sturgeon may have a future in the Caspian Sea.

An estimated 95% of the world's sturgeon population comes from the Caspian Sea. But the problems around this landlocked central Asian sea are multiplying. It used to be shared by the Soviet Union and Iran, but the end of the Cold War saw Soviet control parcelled up between Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

The sturgeon poachers' secret world
Since the Soviet break-up, poachers have taken increasing numbers of sturgeon, including many immature fish. The rush to exploit the Caspian's massive oil reserves puts all the sea's wildlife under growing pressure. And the problem is being compounded by the arrival in the Caspian of an alien species, the comb jellyfish Mnemiopsis leidyi, which competes for food with the sprats (kilka) on which the sturgeon depend.

The sturgeon are remarkable fish in their own right, apart from their value as producers of roes. They swim up to 1,500 km (950 miles) upstream to spawn. Belugas can weigh up to 1,200 kg in maturity.

Abish Bekeshev, a retired ichthyologist who used to head the natural breeding department at a Sturgeon Research Institute once said: "The biggest sturgeon I ever saw was 840 kg, about 3.4m long, and 56 years old. "I did hear of one 70-year-old beluga weighing 2,560 kg, but that may have been a legend. Either way, it's pointless to imagine any longer that the sturgeon can survive here naturally." He states the fact, that not only are sturgeons disappearing, but the seals start dying too because of oil drilling and heavy pollution in the Caspian Sea caused by old soviet fabrics.

So, with 90% of the worlds sturgeon population being confronted with a doomsday scenario, sustainable farming may well be the only hope for the animals and for connosseurs around the globe.

Wild caviar quotas decreased for 2008

The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) has published the export quotas for caviar and other sturgeon products from the Caspian Sea set by the range States for 2008.

The publication of 2008 quotas at this time follows a change in the system governing the establishment of caviar export quotas from shared stocks of sturgeon species adopted at the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP14) held in The Hague, Netherlands in June 2007.

The quota year for caviar and meat will now run from 1 March until the last day of February in the following year, in order to reflect the fishing and marketing seasons.

In line with a recommendation made at CoP14, the quotas are at or below the levels of 2007. Iran�s caviar quota for Persian sturgeon has been reduced by 1,000 kg as a conservation measure.

�The Secretariat remains very concerned about the state of sturgeon stocks in the Caspian Sea. We will be working with the CITES Animals Committee, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Bank to support the Caspian littoral States in their efforts to maintain a viable fishery for these important species,� said CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers.

Meanwhile, recognizing that sturgeon stocks in the Black Sea/lower Danube River fishery have been seriously depleted, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine have maintained their zero caviar export quotas for 2008.

In the case of the stock shared by China and the Russian Federation in the Heilongjiang/Amur River, the Secretariat is seeking further clarification of information submitted by the States concerned and has not been able to publish a quota at this stage.

Additional background

As caviar stocks continued to decline through the 1990s, the Parties to CITES decided to place all sturgeon species that remained unlisted on its Appendix II, a decision that came into effect on 1 April 1998. Since then, all exports of caviar and other sturgeon products have had to comply with strict CITES provisions, including the use of export permits and specific labelling requirements.

In 2001, CITES responded to high levels of poaching and illegal trade in the Caspian Sea by agreeing a temporary ban. Extensive discussions and stronger actions by the range States were required before the annual quotas could be agreed for 2002 to 2005. The Secretariat was unable to publish quotas for 2006.

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. 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.

The CITES regime requires caviar and other sturgeon products to be sold during the quota year in which it as harvested and processed. Because caviar is also a popular local delicacy in many of these countries, they must also focus on strengthening their controls over domestic trade in sturgeon.

Reduced supplies of caviar from the wild have encouraged many countries to establish aquaculture facilities for sturgeon, but in order to preserve incentives for the conservation of wild sturgeon stocks it is important to maintain a catch of these fish at sustainable levels.