World's first organic caviar is produced in Loja, Granada

WORLD’S first-ever organic caviar is being produced by Caviar Riofrio in the Granada municipality of Loja

Today, Sunday 18, is World Caviar Day, so you might be interested to know that the production of the world’s first-ever organic caviar is taking place right here on the Costa del Sol, in the Granada municipality of Loja.
Beluga caviar, which is extracted from adult sturgeon fish, is world-famous as a tasty treat for the rich and famous, but the production of such a delicacy is not an easy process, as it apparently takes the female of the species between 21 and 25 years to reach maturity, which is the time when its eggs that make the caviar can actually be extracted.
Caviar Riofrio is a company that was founded back in 1963 by the Navarrese doctor, Luis Domezain, located in the town of Loja, and originally built as a trout farm, but the doctor soon incorporated sturgeon to the farm, but a tragic flood in September 2018 covered one of the fish farms in mud, and in just a few minutes more than 11,000 sturgeons died.
This was when Carlos Cadenas and his partner Antonio Romero got involved, buying the farm in 2019, with the objective of returning it to it’s former glory – but sadly Antonio passed away in 2020 – rebuilding the business based around traceability, and the Spanish origin of what would become the first organic caviar in the world.
Loja is at a similar latitude south of the Caspian Sea as Iran, and, as in Iran, the waters originate in mountains that are over 3,000 metres high, are free of pesticides, and maintain a constant temperature of between 14ºC and 15ºC, and with an investment of over €2 million, Carlos Cadenas has rebuilt the fish farm while still respecting the natural environment.
He currently has more than 100,000 sturgeon specimens at the farm, consisting of the three most famous varieties of the fish: naccarii, known as the Adriatic sturgeon, gueldenstaedtii, also known as the Russian sturgeon, and the coveted beluga, all under the careful supervision of four biologists, three from Russia, and one Spanish.
Carlos’ effort paid off last Christmas when the company sold its first production of organic and beluga caviar, “It was exceptional because the calibre of the roe reached 3.5 millimetres, compared to the usual 2.8mm, and one kilo of this limited production reached €8,000”, explained Carlos Portela, grandson of Dr. Domezain, and current director of Riofrio.
Although the organic recipe is the most demanded, they also make traditional ones, both Russian and Iranian, in addition to marketing derivatives of caviar and sturgeon meat.
Riofrio has also set out to demolish the popular myths surrounding caviar, as David Montalban, commercial director of Caviar Riofrio explains, “not all that is sold as such is caviar, much less is it beluga. There are scientific and economic reasons to doubt this overabundance. There is misinformation and a lack of transparency”,
Going on to add that, “70 per cent of the caviar consumed today in the world has its origin in fish farms in China. It is not Russian, not Iranian, and of course, it is not wild”, as reported by elmundo.es.
You can even visit Caviar Riofrio: Avenida del Río, 8 18313 Granada Ríofrío, Spain,
or their website: http://www.caviarderiofrio.com/
or find them on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/CaviarEcologicoRiofrio

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