Fondation Osetra Caviar

Our sturgeon and thus your caviar is farmed in the Caspian Sea - the evolutionary origin of the sturgeon. Our sturgeons exist in harmony with mother nature, in the same place they were conceived some 250 million years ago.

None of our sturgeon, unlike non-Caspian Sea producers, have been relocated from their natural environment and transported to far away countries or farms. Thus an excellent ecosystem that ensures quality and sustainability is guaranteed.

The only true caviar comes from the Caspian Sea.

Our caviar adheres to genuine sustainability not marketing buzz words.

As our sturgeons are farmed in their native, prehistoric habitat, you will be rewarded with the same sumptuous taste and divine texture that was enjoyed by the likes of Alexander the Great and Tsar Nicholas II.

We have  not  introduced any exotic sturgeon species, genotypes or various hybrids, which cause a dramatic loss of genetic integrity, into our farms.

Our sturgeon feed on crustaceans, small mollusks and small worms.

We were the first to use ultrasound scanners for sexing our sturgeon, which is now a technique that is used by breeders throughout the world. It allows us to separate our sturgeon and optimize our practices along the way.

Our caviar has been approved by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

This ensures and legally guarantees traceability. Every tin of your caviar is traced to the fish that went inside it.

Our registration number with CITES is 530. Please see here for more information. Please note that if the caviar you buy does not have an Export CITES, the caviar is not coming from the farm, and instead is being sold via an intermediary.

In 2001, Iran was exempted from CITES international ban because it has a functioning management system for sturgeon [https://cites.org/esp/news/pr/2001/010618_SC45_caviar1.shtml] [https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/2001/010621_caviar.shtml] and was commended again in 2003 for imposing the ban upon itself to help to replenish the depleted stocks. [https://cites.org/eng/news/pr/2003/030905_caviar-quotas.shtml]

Iran was commended several times by the UN for their efforts in protecting the sturgeon in 2003 [https://news.un.org/en/story/2003/09/78512-caspian-states-committed-conserving-caviar-bearing-sturgeon-un-report] and again in 2006 [https://news.un.org/en/story/2006/04/175582-hold-caviar-un-backed-body-bans-export-most-endangered-sturgeon]

The  success of these conservation efforts are correlated with Iran being the largest exporter of caviar in the world between 1998 and 2006 [https://ec.europa.eu/environment/cites/pdf/caviar_leaflet.pdf]