Step aside Beluga, make room for Idaho caviar – Aquaculture commission aims to increase communication, awareness of industry

Leo Ray’s future is held within a tiny glass jar.

The miniature, nearly black orbs glistening inside represent nearly 17 years of invested time, money and effort.

And with wholesale prices ranging between $30 and $55 an ounce, the sturgeon eggs could also represent Idaho’s most expensive agricultural product.

The Associated Press

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=4779

"Any fish is like a sponge. It tastes like the water it comes out of, and we have the best water in the world here," said Ray, the owner of Fish Breeders of Idaho.

It is a premise that Ray, Ark Fisheries owners Lynn and Kathy Babington and other regional fish farmers are banking on. Through a cooperative between the Idaho Aquaculture Association, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the College of Southern Idaho, the farmers are raising local Snake River sturgeon for their meat and caviar.

This year could be the first big caviar crop. The white sturgeon does not start producing the valuable eggs until it is between 8 and 10 years old, and it can take a few years more before the fish matures enough to produce eggs suitable for the competitive market.

"The biggest challenge is starting young enough to have the time to wait for the caviar to hit the market," Ray joked. "It’s my 401(k) retirement plan, and Uncle Sam doesn’t have to worry about anyone pulling it out early."

Timing may be everything. The white sturgeon’s elite Caspian Sea cousins — beluga, osetra and sevruga sturgeons — have set the standards by which every fish egg is measured.

But they are also teetering on the edge of extinction.

Overfishing and poaching have threatened Caspian Sea sturgeon, and the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species has given Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan until mid-June to prove they are implementing rules to protect the fish.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering declaring the beluga sturgeon an endangered species. That would effectively kill sales of beluga caviar in America, which takes around 80 percent of Caspian exports.

Some gourmet restaurants in the United States are turning to the less expensive farm-raised American caviar to fill the gaps left in their menus.

"The demand seems to be there, and it’s a matter of marketing and targeting the correct areas and having a quality product," said Terry Patterson, a professor and manager of CSI’s Aquaculture Program. "You have to understand that Idaho caviar is in its infancy compared to, say, California caviar, and we’re still looking at where we can go with it, but the potential is very good."

Under the cooperative, CSI conducts research and breeds the local Snake River sturgeon stock. Some of the fish is released back into the wild under the auspices of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and some is sold to the local farmers, with the proceeds funding the program.

The cooperative started in 1987 when area trout farmers began looking for ways to diversify, Patterson said.

Fish and Game officials worried that if fish farmers imported captive-bred sturgeon from California, some of them could escape into the Snake River and threaten the local wild sturgeon population. But officials were also concerned about maintaining numbers of the local wild sturgeon, which in recent decades had been trapped between the dams along the Snake River.

The cooperative solves both problems, Patterson said, by increasing the local wild population and providing stock for the farms.

"To date we’ve stocked right near 7,000 fish in the Snake River," said Patterson. "They’re all tagged with a computer chip for tracking."

CSI is also researching the little-understood white sturgeon, or acipenser transmontanus.

"The fish need to be five years old before you can find out what sex they are, and the females need to be 8 or 10 years old before they start producing good eggs. We need to find a way to monitor those eggs without cutting them open," he said.

Sturgeon can grow to hundreds of pounds, and some of the farm-raised fish weigh as much as 150 pounds. The eggs can make up more than 10 percent of the body weight, Lynn Babington said.

But despite their bulk, caring for the fish is a delicate process.

"It’s not very forgiving. You make a mistake and you pay for it," Babington said. "Sturgeon have no bones, just cartilage, so if you handle them too rough you can damage the spinal cord. The first 90 days it’s like taking care of a baby."

Harvesting the caviar kills the fish. The entire ovary is removed, Babington said, and carefully rubbed across a screen to separate the eggs from the membrane. The eggs are lightly salted and packed in jars or tins.

The Babingtons sold their first crop of caviar to a California producer.

"We’re farmers, and I’m not sure we want to be caviar marketers," Lynn Babington said. "When it comes to caviar, I’ve only tried very little. My kind comes in a natural container. It’s too expensive for a fish farmer to eat."

During the holiday season, Ray sent samples of his caviar out to his steady customers, and now some of them are ordering it regularly. Most of his next harvest will be sold before he kills a fish.

Taste will likely not be an issue. Initial tastes of the caviar have brought rave reviews, and because of the environmental control a farm offers Idaho caviar may someday compete with beluga, Ray said.

"I think in quality of egg, beluga has a reputation for being the best and white sturgeon is at number three. There’s a good chance that in the aquaculture environment we can bump it up to the best quality," he said. "It’s just about harvesting and adding salt at the right time."

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Aquaculture commission aims to increase communication, awareness of industry

By Megan Hinds
Times-News writer

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=4781

HAGERMAN — Creation of the Idaho Aquaculture Commission is the first step in fostering better communication between competitors, say supporters of Idaho’s newest agricultural commodity commission.

The commission, signed into existence last week by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne as part of a new water agreement between groundwater users and spring water users, is designed to raise awareness of Idaho’s aquaculture industry.

As struggles within Idaho aquaculture fragmented the industry, large producers and small producers have been pitted against each other. Now the industry has a chance to unite as a community toward a common goal, said Linda Lemmon, executive secretary of the Idaho Aquaculture Association. Lemmon spoke to The Times-News on behalf of the association.

The commission will promote the industry through generic industry advertising and increased aquaculture research. The establishment of the new commission in July will replace the Idaho Aquaculture Association, which currently represents the majority of Idaho fish producers and processors, Lemmon said.

"We believe the commission can do everything the association can do and more," Lemmon said.

Unlike the current association, which has relatively limited representational powers, the new commission will be recognized as a legal entity mandated by the state of Idaho, Lemmon said.

The new commission will be "in serious contention" for state and federal research grants for which all legal state-recognized entities — like the Idaho Bean Commission and the Idaho Potato Commission — are eligible, Lemmon said.

The commission, in which membership is voluntary, will receive the proceeds from an assessment from participating producers of five cents per hundred pounds of fish processed, including trout, tilapia, catfish, sturgeon and alligator.

The need for an aquaculture commission arose from the struggles fish producers and processors have experienced in recent years, including a reduced water supply and lower market prices for fish, Lemmon said.

Over the past 12 years, Idaho’s trout production has averaged around 40 million pounds per year, said Gary Fornshell, aquaculture specialist for the University of Idaho.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Idaho’s trout production in 2003 was 34.6 million pounds. Compared with the average, "that’s a pretty significant drop," Fornshell said.

While two-thirds of the United States’ trout supply comes from Idaho, a four-year drought has greatly reduced spring flows in the Thousand Springs area near Hagerman, and fish producers have lowered their production accordingly. Many area trout producers, faced with too many fish, donated fish for stocking programs last spring.

"We had two main markets — restaurants and supermarkets," said Leo Ray, owner of Fish Breeders of Idaho near Buhl. "As the spring flow dropped, we had to drop supermarkets."

In addition to the decreased production, fish prices began a downward slide in 2001, as diners stayed away from restaurants as a result of the economic impact of the Sept. 11 attacks, Ray said. The following recession and a strong foreign import market have kept fish prices — mainly those of trout — down ever since.

"We concentrated our sales to one market, and that market collapsed," Ray said.

A main goal of the new commission is to foster better communication between competitors in the industry, said Kay Hardy, president of Idaho Trout Co., which operates a trout facility near Buhl.

As prices and production have gone down, competition between companies has become more fierce than ever, and the industry has become "increasingly fragmented," Hardy said.

"This commission creates a forum to discuss larger issues … and gives people a reason to communicate with each other," Hardy said.

The bill signed by Kempthorne last week was a modified version of another bill proposing formation of the commission. That earlier bill did not include an opt-out clause for fish producers and processors who do not wish to participate in the commission, and it did not pass.

Larry Cope, president of Clear Springs Foods near Buhl, testified against the earlier bill before the Idaho House Agricultural Affairs committee. Cope disagreed with the first bill, but he said last week that Clear Springs Foods — the largest fish producer in Idaho — is neutral on the creation of the commission.

"We’re not sure what kind of value (joining the commission) would bring to us," Cope said. "One of the objectives of the commission is to be a source for grants for aquaculture research. We are already investing substantial amounts of money into our own research."

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Can Idaho caviar compete against the elite?

The Associated Press

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=4780

BOISE — It took more than a decade of investment and research for Hagerman-area fish farmers to grow their first crop of white sturgeon caviar.

But before the gourmet product starts bringing a profit, the Idaho Aquaculture Association still must clear one crucial hurdle — convincing chefs, food aficionados and caviar lovers that the eggs from Idaho farms are just as good as the eggs harvested from the Caspian Sea.

"It’s all going to be in the marketing," said Leo Ray, owner of Fish Breeders of Idaho.

If Boise chef Lou Aaron’s reaction to his first taste of Idaho caviar is any indication, the product will sell itself.

"Really, this is from Hagerman? It’s excellent," he said.

Aaron, owner of Westside Catering and the Westside Drive-in, said the caviar was close to the best he’d ever tasted.

"This is almost exactly what it looks like when you open up a jar of beluga," Aaron said. "In caviar, the roe needs to be whole and the consistency is beautiful in this. In cheaper caviar, they add more liquid to it."

Caviar is often ranked according to a hierarchy, with the eggs from three types of Caspian Sea sturgeon topping the list. The first, beluga caviar, is the most expensive because it is the rarest. Next comes osetra caviar and then sevruga caviar. Caviar from sturgeon elsewhere in the world — including America — generally follows. Finally, fish eggs from other types of fish such as paddlefish, golden whitefish, salmon and flying fish finish up the list.

Caviar from the white sturgeon is said to be most similar to osetra.

After examining the tiny eggs in the jar and on a spoon, Aaron tried the caviar first by itself and then with a cracker.

"This is the best caviar I’ve tasted other than the real Russian beluga," he said.

The dark charcoal beads from Ray’s sturgeon are firm and lightly salted, with a delicate, clean flavor, a slight tang and a mild fish aftertaste. Some tasters described the caviar as fruity, a bit like jelly or buttery.

The flavor was similar to good sushi, Aaron said.

"It has that raw fish flavor, you pick that up, and then you do taste the salt. Like a cured salmon, almost," Aaron said.

Much of the caviar sold in America is an impostor, Aaron said, falsely labeled as coming from sturgeon or the Caspian Sea and dyed to the correct color.

"That’s why so many people don’t like caviar, because they’ve never really tasted it before and only had the fake stuff," he said. "It has to be sturgeon fish roe to be called caviar, and if it’s not, the producers are breaking the law. When you taste lumpfish roe, for instance, you just taste salt. And the dye they put on the fake stuff is horrible. It gets all over your teeth."

The chef’s favorite way to eat caviar is dotted on potato chips with a touch of creme fraiche, he said. Aaron also recommends serving caviar with smoked salmon, on potato pancakes or on blinis with creme fraiche.

Baby red potatoes may be cut in half and hollowed, fried and filled with caviar, or the caviar may be offered with toast points and accompaniments including capers, shallots, chopped parsley, minced olives or shaved egg whites and yolks.

Many connoisseurs say fine caviar should be eaten alone and embellishments should be saved for inferior grades. Because caviar oxidizes quickly when exposed to some types of metal, experts recommend that serving spoons be made of mother of pearl, horn, shell or even plastic. Once opened, caviar should be consumed within two or three days.