Caviar soon from Meck-Pomm

Caviar Creator Düsseldorf builds largest closed aquaculture facility / 30 million euro investment / laying of the foundation stone in Demmin

Caviar from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania? What sounds unusual at first will soon be commonplace. In the Hanseatic city of Demmin in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Düsseldorf company Caviar Creator is building the world's largest closed aquaculture facility for rearing sturgeons. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in December last year, and the cornerstone for the 20 million euro project was ceremoniously laid on Saturday, March 30th.

The first sturgeons should come into the basins of the facility as early as next autumn. They are adult animals that provide the roe known as caviar after a year of acclimatization. Frank Schaefer, Head of Caviar Creator Europe, specifies the planned production volume as 33 tons of caviar per year. That is twice as much as the total German caviar imports in 2002. "The demand for high-quality caviar is very high," emphasizes Frank Schaefer. Due to the decline in the sturgeon population in the wild, the supply of wild caviar has drastically decreased. 15 years ago there were around 2.000 tonnes traded on the world market, last year the supply was only 70 tonnes. In addition, the sturgeon has been under species protection worldwide since 1998.

The technology of the Caviar Creator aquaculture facility in Demmin is based on closed water circuits. The water is permanently treated mechanically and biologically. The Caviar Creator eco seal guarantees that hormones, pesticides, growth accelerators and antibiotics are not used. The water is returned to nature via its own sewage treatment plant right next to the sturgeon farm. "The game fish thank you for the ideal conditions with accelerated growth and high quality," says Schaefer. The female sturgeon are ready to spawn after just four years - in the wild it takes about three times as long. In addition to caviar, around 400 tons of sturgeon meat are also said to come from Demmin. Fish delicacies are sold to catering companies, airlines, shipping lines, delicatessen retailers, food wholesalers and end consumers via the Internet (e-shop).

The Demmin aquaculture facility will be built in two phases. The first construction phase amounts to an investment volume of almost ten million euros. According to Schaefer, 3,4 to four million euros will come from funding from the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The remaining financing is provided by private investors in the form of fund participations.

The Caviar Creator company was founded in 2000 in Oregon (USA). The European branch is based in Düsseldorf. The core business of Caviar Creator is the construction, financing and operation of aquaculture facilities and the production of high-quality game fish according to ecological principles, as well as their processing and marketing. In the next six years, the company plans to build 20 aquaculture facilities worldwide, four of which will be in Germany. Caviar Creator currently employs 130 people.

More information on the Internet at www.caviar-creator.com

Source: Demmin [ ots ]