Aquitaine caviar should obtain European recognition as a protected geographical indication (PGI) in early 2024. In a market deemed “opaque”, this will be a guarantee of transparency and a “strategic” label in the face of international competition, particularly Chinese.
With 50 tonnes of sturgeon eggs per year, France cannot compete in volume with China, which produces 250 tonnes of this emblematic dish and alone accounts for around half of the world market, ahead of Italy and Poland. This is why four of the largest French producers, all based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, initiated a slow process ten years ago to obtain this very first European PGI dedicated to caviar, hoped for in March or April.
“It has to be more than just marketing behind it”
A new label to take the market “against the grain”, explains Laurent Dulau, general manager of Sturgeon, French leader with 20 tonnes per year. “It’s a market where, traditionally, chiaroscuro is essential. Greed means that we can cheat on the origins, the age of the caviar… We take this the wrong way, we have nothing to hide,” he says.
Laurent Dulau, who chairs the Caviar d’Aquitaine associationpromoter of the PGI, praises the readability and transparency of the future label for the consumer: “total traceability, guarantee of origin, eco-responsibility and eco-sustainability of growing practices, no GMOs, no antibiotics…”
Françoise Boisseaud, general director of the trading house Le Comptoir du caviar, is “up for it” to push the label to her customers. “Requiring transparency in a market that has remained fairly opaque, working on quality standards, can only strengthen the sector,” she judges. “But it has to be more than just marketing.” The specifications will be controlled by an independent body, Certipaq. And Sturgeon (72 employees, 13.5 million euros turnover in 2022) ensures that she is already putting it into practice.
2,000 to 3,000 euros per kg, or even 10,000 euros for the most prestigious products
Before the holidays, which represent two thirds of sales, its employees were busy this week on one of the fish farming sites in Saint-Fort-sur-Gironde (Charente-Maritime), where 32,000 sturgeons are raised in 9 hectares of basins. “The IGP validates our way of working,” summarizes Nicolas Proust, fish production manager at Sturgeon. “With the well-being of the fish, we have better quality eggs. »
Not far from there, in Saint-Genis-de-Saintonge, employees wearing charlottes, blouses and white gloves receive the eggs for a series of meticulous operations: examining the firmness, measuring, weighing, sieving, rinsing and salting. Then the caviar, sorted by color and size, is packaged manually in the famous round metal boxes, where it will be refined for a few months before being sold for 2,000 to 3,000 euros per kg, or even 10,000 euros for the most prestigious products.
“If you go into the field of quantity and prices with the Chinese, you are dead”
Around 90% of French production comes from farms in the region and will therefore be eligible for the new label. “France is a small country,” notes Françoise Boisseaud. “We are going to be forced into a value market anyway, not volume. It’s strategic. »
“It will clean up the European market,” wants to believe Laurent Sabeau, general director of Prunier Manufacture, one of the three other producers members of the future IGP with L’Esturgeonnière and Caviar de France. “If you go into the field of quantity and prices with the Chinese, you are dead. So, we have to do better,” concludes the manager, whose company makes 80% of its sales from exports.