Leading trout farm starts producing sturgeon species

Sochi-based trout farm "Adler" (near the Black sea coast) has been boosting its production of both fish eggs and fish individuals for selling. In 2007 the fish production volume increased by 3%, and eyed roe volume increased by 13%, according to the local media sources.

In February - March 2008 the roe was supplied to different regions of Russia except for the Russian Far East.

In autumn 2007 the company started "sturgeon experiment" in the context of the Federal program of seafood industry development in Russia in 2006 - 2010.

Sturgeon farming and stock revival was one of the tasks set by the President of Russia. At present the company ongrows sturgeon species and Adler products are in great demand on the local market.

First consignment of baby sturgeons from the farms of Krasnodarsky Krai region was stocked in similar tanks as trout. But the water from artesian wells for the sturgeons that are used to the temperature 20 - 25 above zero was too cold for sturgeon and they grew slowly.

In this situation, the company's specialists decided to put the fish in carp ponds. The results exceeded all the expectations. The sturgeons grew rapidly and the only difficulty was only to harvest the fish in a huge pond. They had to drain water for this purpose.

At present the company has equipped two other reservoirs for sturgeon. In one pond they have a specially equipped cage where the grown fish is stored until it is sold. The pond is divided into three parts and each part's storing capacity is up to half a tonne of fish.

The farm has its own shop where consumers can always buy fresh sturgeon of various weight and length from 600g to 1.2 meters long.

Nowadays the company has 2 - 3 tonnes of commercial fish and 3 tonnes more of fry to be stocked shortly. In autumn the company plans to harvest 12 - 15 tonnes of sturgeon.

Now the demand for this deli species is rapidly growing. At present the company supplies its sturgeon to 70% of HoReCa sector of the Olympic city of Sochi. They have made a contract with the Department of Agriculture of the administration of the President of Russia recently and the first consignment has been transported to Moscow.