Bringing the tastes of caviar and sturgeon delicatessen to refined European and global palates, Granada, Spain-based caviar designer Caviar de Riofrío predicts a 50 percent upswing in sales of its tinned, smoked and fresh products this year.
“Providing the best products halfway between tradition and avant-garde,” Riofrío has announced an ambitious growth plan based on increasing production, domestic sales volumes and target export markets.
Caviar is taken from the Adriatic sturgeon (Acipenser naccarii), a near-extinguished species that the company rears in captivity. This species is noted for its slow growth, retaining its full tastes of different notes and pearl gray color.
To minimize the added salt or preservative content, Riofrío has re-adapted the Russian process called Mallosol whereby minimal salt is added, approximately 3 to 4 percent.
Trading as Piscifactoría de Sierra Nevada (PSN, Sierra Nevada Fish Farm), the company began life as a trout farm in the 1960s before establishing its first sturgeon farm in 1987.
Outlining the growth strategy, Export Manager Sergio A. Casares told SeafoodSource: “PSN is producing 50 percent more in 2011 than in 2010. Across the Spanish market our sales keep increasing every month compared with 2010, and in 2010 we increased almost 100 percent compared with 2009. We are also adding new products in our portfolio [such as] Caviar Spherification and Wild Salmon Roe.”
Caviar Spherification is popular among laboratory-minded chefs, including Ferran Adrià, founder of Spain’s three-star Michelin restaurant El Bulli, using a process in which caviar pearls burst with olive oil at a touch of the tongue.
Describing Riofrío’s export targets, Casares said: “We have open new markets such as Russia where we will export 1,000 kilograms in 2011. Also China and Brazil, and we are opening new opportunities in countries where we’ve been exporting for years.
“Being a new product, our Organic Caviar is having an amazing reception. Not just for being organic, but for being a really good product. Other markets where it is highly valued include Germany, Japan and Singapore,” added Casares.
