Family-owned Italian caviar company Caviar Giaveri is not worried about how recently imposed U.S. tariffs could change its nearly 50-year-old business.
The company, which produces 13 tons of caviar annually and which raises its sturgeon for seven to more than 20 years before harvesting, is used to being patient, according to Giada Giaveri, who runs the company her father started with her sisters Jenny and Joys.
“Our distributors in the U.S. are quite easy [about the tariffs],” Giaveri told SeafoodSource at the 2025 Seafood Expo Global, held 6 to 8 May in Barcelona, Spain. “They say that [talk of tariffs is] a lot of smoke, but in the end, they are really not sure that something will change.”
The luxury nature of her product also gives Giaveri confidence that her company can weather current market challenges. Caviar is already affected by higher taxes, she said, and luxury products require “another kind of approach” than those which are marketed for their value.
“In this field, I think we can easily manage it,” she said.
Giaveri said that the brand’s success is owed to her father, who had the foresight to start breeding sturgeon in the 1970s, long before their addition to lists of endangered species worldwide made caviar as valuable as it is today.
Rodolfo Giaveri already had a business breeding eels when he started breeding sturgeon for sport fishing, simply because he found them interesting.
“He was in love with this prehistoric fish,” Giaveri told SeafoodSource.
Rodolfo ultimately raised 10 different species, and the company ensures that its production aligns with Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) guidance.
CITES monitors the breeding and marketing of all sturgeon, requiring caviar producers to list the specific production methods of the product on the back of the package.
Giaveri explained that educating consumers on the value of buying caviar which complies with CITES can be a challenge in certain markets.
“At least 80 percent of our production goes outside Italy,” Giaveri said. “Italy [does not have] a real caviar culture yet, but we are working on it.”
Currently, the company focuses its domestic marketing on tastings and educational events, which help Italian consumers understand how one variety differs from another.
By contrast, Giaveri said, “if you go [to] France, this is in their DNA."
"It’s very easy [to sell caviar there],” she said. "We want to teach [that the long production process] is why caviar is expensive."
In fact, the brand’s beluga sturgeon takes at least 20 years to raise and often up to 30 years.
“We want to make it sustainable,” Giaveri said. “We don’t want to do 1 ton of beluga this year and never again. That’s [also] why we breed a lot of species because just in terms of sturgeon being an endangered species, we [want to] keep the species going.”
Another sustainability initiative the company has pursued is the sale of sturgeon flesh.
“We don’t waste. The fish meat is sold frozen, and we do cans where we fillet it in olive oil," she said. "It’s very good. You can use it like tuna, but it’s delicate.”
Ultimately, Giaveri said, her company’s long-term approach is motivated by love for the unusual fish and respect for its natural growth cycle.
“A lot of people want to make quantity. You can cut the cycle, you can produce a lot of caviar this year, but it’s a natural product," she said. "You have to respect it. It’s a philosophy. You wait more time, you invest more money, but then the quality is better."
