White caviar offers an exclusive alternative

Demand for caviar remains high, not just from paying customers, but sturgeon rustlers too

Grödig: In his waders, Stefan Astner checks on the albino sturgeon: Almost two decades after they hatched, they’re ready to be gutted for their caviar to be shipped out for New Year’s celebrations.

“The fish have already been through the ultrasound so we saw that they are full (of roe) and they will go into production soon,” Astner says, dipping his net into a small pond teeming with the rare, white sturgeon.

Deemed the most expensive food in the world, demand for caviar – essentially, salted roe – has driven most sturgeon species to the brink of extinction in the wild.But fish farms like the one where Astner works in the village of Groedig, near the Austrian city of Salzburg, offer a more sustainable alternative. Owner Walter Gruell is one of about 2,500 sturgeon farmers worldwide that produce a combined 415 tonnes of caviar a year, according to the World Sturgeon Conservation Society’s most recent figures dating from 2018.

But patience is imperative for producers. The required investment is high and doesn’t pay off for years until the sturgeon begin carrying roe – that’s if they aren’t stolen by gangs hoping to skip the arduous breeding process.

The albino female that Gruell slices with surgical precision is 16 years old. Slowly, he removes, rinses, and weighs the cream-coloured roe, which, like the fish, lacks pigmentation. Though there’s no research suggesting that lack of pigmentation affects caviar’s taste, Gruell is convinced of its superiority, asserting that “it’s even sweeter, even smoother than the traditionally black one”. Consumers are willing to pay for the difference.

The female that Gruell just cut yields 600 grams (21 ounces), worth 8,000 euros ($9,750) – more than three times the price that black caviar fetches.The coronavirus pandemic has curbed demand as upscale restaurants, like all eateries in Austria, have been closed, but retail is booming, partly because people still want to treat themselves, Gruell believes.