In January, 2007, CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), is an international agreement between governments, aims to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival, will announce quotas on catch of caviar for 2007, Trend reports referring to a message spread by UN.
At the beginning of the last year, CITES rejected to approve quotas on catch of caviar and other sturgeon production to be produced by the Caspian states. As a condition on resuming the export, CITES, has particularly insisted on the countries-exporters providing additional information on the situation with the population of sturgeons, as well as taking decisive measures aimed at preventing the poaching. In addition, CITES has put a number of commitments on the countries-importers such as EU countries and Switzerland. CITES urged them to control their markets to avoid delivering contraband caviar there.
In April, 2006, CITES approved the quota on export of caviar, but only from Iran. In 2006, this country could export 44 tons 370 kg of black caviar, practically without any competition in the international market, since the quotas for the other Caspian countries Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan for 2006 have not been approved, and therefore these countries could not export black caviar. The Caspian Sea is the water basin where 90 percent of all the sturgeons of the World concentrate. The quotas for 2007 are expected to be announced on January 2, 2007.