ZwyerCaviar hits South Africa

Di Botha is the sole CITES certified importer of black caviar in South Africa. And she teamed up with ZwyerCaviar, making sure the world cup 2010 offers the finest from A to Zwyer!

Read this blog article regarding an epicurean event held sometime back in November.

To explore ZwyerCaviar in South Africa, pls contact Di Botha from Black Book Caviar.

The Caviarist is back with a BANG!

Dear all,

I know, I know…lately I wasn’t much of a hard-blogger or storyteller. But after settling some private issues I am back on track – bringing with me some fresh news.

So, pls stay tuned as news will drop in shortly!

Yours truly,

Caviarist

End of poll 2: results

My latest poll that run on this blog for the last 5 months was: “Farmed caviar in times of economic crisis. What will happen?”

Well, lots of water went under the bridge. According to the international press, the economic crisis is facing its final (delicate) stage. Hopefully the job market does better than everybody is expecting, which would trigger more optimism around this issue. And after the expression ‘economic crisis’ became inflationary, people recently switched to ‘swineflu’. All the better for the caviar industry.

But as its the case with all the polls, this one was rather subjective than objective and more importantly, it was of prophetic nature. So, are golden caviar days lying ahead of us? Or is the fun around the eggs doomed and will it become demonized?

Lets see. Here are the possible answers with the respective results:

Caviar price remains high or goes up – sector keeps growing: 11%

Caviar gets ‘cheaper’ – competition smaller: 14%

Caviar gets tag of ‘political incorrectness’. Free fall of demand and offer: 15%

The industry splits up into ‘premium farms’ ($$$) and ‘cheap farms’ ($): 60%

The obviously predominant prophecy is, that in the (near) future caviar producers around the world will split up into producers for the masses (= cheap caviar) and exclusive caviar producers with less annual production volume (= expensive caviar). With ‘less annual production volume’ I mean produers who target up to a max. of 10tons per year. Anything above I consider as a sturgeon breeding farm that cannot work and monitor each fish individually. Therefore loosing ‘control’ over the product and its quality. Such projects follow ‘the bigger the better’ mantra. Don’t get me wrong: size DOES matter. But this time its quite the oposite: the lesser the better!

Only time will tell if the ‘splitting up’ becomes a new reality. I tend to say, that the first signs on the horizon (e.g. huge caviar production facilities in China, Italy, the Middle East, the US, etc.) confirm this possibility.

But then again: this would do good to the very few top producers who want nothing more than replacing the wild caviar with the better: premium farmed caviar!

Soon there will be the 3rd poll online. Stay tuned for more!

Sticky German affair

 

It’s just plain great to know, who is checking up my blog. Which audience. The old saying goes: keep your friends close. But keep your enemies closer. Well, sure thing. I might just do that.

Some Germans within the caviar industry asked me last week – in a not at all polite way – to delete a post. It was about some missguided info about them. Supposedly. Something they wanted to see vanished from the face of the earth. But hey! My blog is just that: my blog. And as much as you would like me having total control over the internet (thing again!), I cannot guarantee that this blogarticle will pop out the net anytime in the future.

So, this goes out to whom it may concern:

Lay back. Dont panik. And do yourself a favour: play! Its the internet. Its the 3rd millenia. Its the grey zone. Get updated. Or get out.

New Caviarist logo

 

 

Caviarist.com introduces its new shiny logo. Personally, I think its absolutely great!

On both sides the Caviarist shield is protected by two sturgeons. And on the top are two big leaves which end in a kind of a snake head.

Interpretation: The Caviarist gets his legitimacy for this blog out of the disastrous situation all wild sturgeon populations worldwide are encountering and he stands firm (snakes) against all the sturgeon poachers and evil-doers.

 

HELP TO STOP THE ROE TO RUIN!

HELP TO BANISH DEATH ROE!

Or as the Watchmen said:

Adrian Veidt: It doesn’t take a genius to see the world has problems.
Edward Blake: No, but it takes a room full of morons to think they’re small enough for them to handle.

 

New poll!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since last wednesday there’s a new poll active!

It’s about the current (and future) economic crisis and how it will affect the new industry of farmed caviar. In the last couple of years, due to the speeding ‘almost extinction’ of wild sturgeon populations – mostly in the Caspian Sea region - many new farming projects where popping up. Thus, leading to an exponential offer of farm raised sturgeons and farmed caviar. Many are still hanging in the developing and pre-production phase. Now, the question that troubles me is how that particular industry will be affected from the current market turmoil.

In my opinion we’ll see first a battle over prices in all the price categories and inter tradings by pointing downward. At the same time a selection process begins between the premium farmers (normally with smaller annual production volumes) and the mass producers (with 5tons+ annually). Reaching a bottom, some farmers wont be able to handle their costs anymore. Especially the mass producers who set their chips on sturgeon farming only and who produce poor quality. As a result, some farms will have to close their doors, filing for bankruptcy. Others will have the financial backbone to survive. And when the economy starts building its muscles again there will remain very little premium farmers (e.g. Uruguay, Israel, France, Bulgaria) and the best mass producers. My prophecy: the crisis cuts down the amount of companies by 50%.

So, throw in your dices! Feel free to ad your votes.

Check for the blog on the right column.

Caviarist.com – Member of the W.S.C.S.

 

 

 

New Year intentions. It’s that time of year again. Again and again we vow to some unachievable or half-baked goals. The results are mostly a complete failure. Ashamed by ourselfes, we burry our empty words sometime between summer and autumn.

The Caviarist proves it better (altough there might be some soon-to-be-failed intentions already standing in line…)! In the search for an organization which is really dedicated in the conservation of the sturgeon species and restauration of sturgeon stocks worldwide and which earns a high credibility, I found the answer in the W.S.C.S. (yep, it may sound a bit too religious…).

But let them speak in their words:

“The Society intends to act as an international forum of scientific discussion for all persons interested in pertinent issues on sturgeons while at the same time seeking opportunities for close co-operation at an international level.

The vision for this society is to see stocks thriving once again in important sturgeon waters in the basins of Caspian, Asov, Black, North and Baltic seas, rivers in Siberia and China as well as in the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada in addition to other North American watersheds. The Society therefore hopes through its activities to enhance the understanding of species protection world-wide and across national borders in regions with different cultural and political backgrounds (using the highly endangered sturgeons as case examples) in order to foster the sustainable use of natural resources that are traded globally. ” to read more…

The World Sturgeon Conservation Society e. V. might be a new thing. But it’s scientific gathering of high profilers within the caviar business is the key. Their commitment is very strong. And so is the commitment of the Caviarist to do really something good for the remaining wild sturgeons - besides this blog.

New Years intentions. It’s that time of year again. But this time, this one is for the winning team!

BTW: The W.S.C.S. is co-organizing this years International Symposium on Sturgeon (ISS6), which is held in Wuhan, China from the 25th to the 30th October.

The Caviarist at the Zurich Silvesterlauf 2008 (8km run)

No, it was not the caviar which made me participate in the race. And it wasnt mum’s cookies either. The Zürcher Silvesterlauf is an anual event which offers some great moments for the runners. Why? Because running with thousands of others in the heart of Zurich’s old district and admiring the typical holiday decorations and cutting through a freezing wind promises always some everlasting memories. So much is sure: if I am nearby, I will always attend this.

By the way: in this picture above, taken during the event me and my dear friend Mathias are wearing a vest of the La Martina ZwyerCaviar Limited Edition Collection. Purchasable online!

 

Silversterlauf-Zueri-2008

Caviarist.com – The Aftermath (3 month blogging)

By the end of August ’08 I started with this blog. It was clear from the beginning that this will be a shot into the dark. Sure, there are far bigger and more threatening issues in the world than the survival of sturgeons alone or the pollution of the Caspian Sea or the question if one is buying illegal caviar from his traditional contact or not. It started as an experiment. So, it’s about time to make a short overview of how things are happening in here and to share this with you. Now, lets see where it took me so far:

Pretty far, it seems! Surfers from over 50 countries and 30 different languages have stumbled over my blog. The following countries are the top 10 runners:

- Switzerland (of course; but right behind is….)

- United States (always and everywhere in the top ten!)

- Bulgaria (what a surprise)

- Argentina (I guess more because of ‘polo’ than ‘caviar’)

- Uruguay (my second home country)

- UK (the Brits are known to be connoisseurs. After all they invented port wine…)

- Germany (the competition?)

- Slovakia (rising states follow trends)

- France (of course!)

- Brasil (and who thought of that?)

 

But there are also some few but nevertheless surprising visits from the following states:

-  India (6 visits)

- Costa Rica (6)

- Japan (5)

- Australia (4)

- Kazakhstan (3) (maybe I should stop posting about the caviar mafia?)

- Iran (3)

- United Arab Emirates (1)

- El Salvador (1)

- Bahrain (1)

- Azerbaijan (1)

 

Other key observations:

- Tuesdays and Wednesdays seem to generate most of the visits.

- Almost half of the visits are unique visitors (first timers). So, quite a high rate through returners!

- An average visitor sees almost 3 pages

- And the average time of a visitor is 4.30min.

- The Alexa Rank: aprox. 6,3Mio (still a long way to go!!!)

 

 

It is apropriate to say that Caviarist.com is already today, after 3 month blogging, a frequently visited blog about caviar. Thinking about the relatively special topic of the blog and the very small amount of people who can or want to actually enjoy caviar, these figures are quite impressive to me. The traffic points towards growth. Reason enough for me to keep going on. Pls, feel free to share your thoughts with me about how to improve things in here. After all it’s for you!

 

It remains to express my gratitude to all of you out there!

Overandout.