2023-12-31 10:57:00
A family story
Without delay, the fish farmer asked us to put on a pair of boots and cover our heads with a cap to enter this “temple” of caviar. On the road, between reception and the ponds, he explains the family history behind this breeding project: “The Joosen family has been active in flour for four generations, they are millers from father to son. At the start of this caviar, it was a miller who met a biologist in the early 1980s. The scientist told him regarding the feeling he had when he saw fishing decline: he said to himself that there would surely be a demand for caviar breeding at a given time. They therefore made the decision to learn how to raise sturgeons with the aim of having caviar in ten to twenty years, the time to develop their know-how. This is what is arrived since the first caviar entered the market in 2001.” The biologist’s prediction was correct, because the ban on fishing for wild fish did indeed arrive in 2005. The family then decided to produce 100% Belgian caviar, from egg to egg, on two sites: one in Turnhout and a breeding farm in Dottignies.
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
Hundreds of pools
The surface area of the place is impressive, mainly that of the 25 meter long room where the breeding tanks are located. The noise of the machines is deafening and the temperature is low. This is not really a coincidence since, here, everything is thought out so that the sturgeons live in the best conditions in order to maintain the reputation of the “Royal Belgian Caviar”. The water temperature in the pools varies according to the seasons: “Today, it must be 16.5 degrees. It is important to induce seasonal phenomena to help accelerate the metabolism since the fish is a animal which lives according to the temperature of the water, even if, obviously, the sturgeon is capable of living under the ice floe without any problem”, specifies Thierry Bay, dipping his hand into the water of a pool.
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard DemoulinIn the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
Small fish, small pond
Two young men are working a little further away, in one of the first ponds. The fish being grouped by year of arrival, these first pools contain young sturgeons, the “2022 generation”. In fact, these animals are born in natural ponds in Campine in which broodstock live. Once the babies have reached around ten centimeters, they arrive at Dottignies, where they are transferred from one bath to another as they grow. The golden rule here is “small fish, small pond; big fish, big pond”. The two workers are also in the process of transferring fish: “They are young so we do not yet know if they are boys or girls, because we have not yet done the sexing. The goal is to divide the quantity of fish in two. There, I have around 1500, it’s too much compared to the volume. So we took over the pool next door and we’re going to divide them into two groups.”
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
Sexing to keep only females
When they are two or three years old, in adolescence, we can determine, through an ultrasound, the sex of the fish. The fish farmers will separate them between males and females and only the females will be kept, since the males do not produce caviar. A question then arises quite instinctively: if we only keep the females, what do we do with the males? Thierry Bay explains that “during sexing, we use sizes of 3-4 kilos. Which is a good size for sport fishing, so we send them to the fishermen, as we do for trout. There is also a whole active consumer market in Russia.
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
Growing and developing eggs
The females will therefore stay here, in Dottignies, and grow until the stage long awaited by fish farmers: ovulation. Indeed, when we talk regarding caviar, we are talking regarding unfertilized ova, i.e. eggs which have not yet been laid and which we look for directly in the belly of the animal. Like humans, sturgeons do not all have the same cycles and their ovulation does not appear at the same time: “females begin to develop their eggs at the earliest from 4 years of age and at the latest around 15 or 18 years of age , for belugas. The whole game is to detect those whose eggs are ready, very compact and firm. If we miss this appointment, the eggs decompose and break and a new cycle will begin. The appointments -You misses are not a big deal, because the fish continue to develop and get bigger, and they will probably produce more caviar.”
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard DemoulinIn the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
Food “made in Belgium”
To grow well and produce quality eggs, fish must have an impeccable diet. So, every morning, the fish farmers at the breeding farm feed them on the fly, throwing pellets produced by a company that also belongs to the Joosen family. The granules are composed of fish oil and cereal and fish meal. Thierry Bay explains, by throwing the food into the different ponds that “these are omnivorous fish: they eat small live fish, shrimp… We are therefore going to put these flours linked to this type of fish and crustaceans to feed the fish as precisely as possible and as close as possible to its request. We have a lot of Omega 3 in caviar, it is very healthy for your health. The size of the food grains also depends on the age and size of the fish. You can make the recipe you want and choose different types of pellets depending on the stage of the fish. A young one needs more protein to grow, while at the end of its life, it may need more of fat to make eggs.”
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard DemoulinIn the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
The maturing room
After years in the breeding tanks, the females who are old enough to ovulate will be analyzed, using a biopsy, in order to determine the quality criteria of their eggs. This is how they will be sorted. Those with the best eggs will go to the maturing room while those whose eggs might be improved during the next ovulation remain in the breeding tanks. The maturing room is quite similar to the breeding room: there are various basins there. The refining stage is essential in the production of “black gold”, because it is thanks to this stage that its taste will become specific. Even if it is filtered, the water from breeding ponds can sometimes contain algae which might give a parasitic taste to the caviar, similar to beetroot. So, to avoid this side effect, the fish will remain fasting for a few days in these refining tanks.
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
Harvesting eggs
After being processed in this maturing room, it is time for the sturgeons to leave Dottignies. They are placed in oxygenated tanks before being placed in a truck, heading towards Turnhout. “They go to the slaughterhouse in Flanders, where their bellies are opened to extract the eggs by hand,” explains Thierry Bay. The size of the eggs varies depending on the species; the company tries to ensure that they are always more than 3 millimeters, a guarantee of quality for the brand. The eggs are then sifted, rinsed, drained and salted. The pearls are directly placed in a vacuum-sealed box to avoid oxidation.
Up to 20% of the fish will be used to produce caviar, the rest of the body will be sold to connoisseurs like the Russians. People from the East are used to eating this type of fish. We can also find some in stores, particularly in Antwerp”, explains Thierry Bay. The company also uses a specialist to hot smoke the fillets.
In the secret of the caviar factory aquaculture farm. Belgian caviar Royal Belgian Caviar ©Bernard Demoulin
International tasting
To end our visit to this breeding farm, we look at this year’s harvests. “I don’t yet have the figures for the end of December, but we will probably sell eleven tonnes of caviar this year. Almost four tonnes were sold in Belgium and all the rest goes to export. Our locomotives are Scandinavia and the United States. England is doing well too, particularly because we are sold at Harrods for example.” Contrary to what one might think, the company does not seek to be present on a large scale, in supermarkets or luxury “the place to be”. The firm favors quality places rather than quantities of places: “It is with the support of chefs that we want to develop, we are not trying to be a caviar of supermarkets, even if we are present there for one-off operations like here at the end of the year. We want to be on very good tables, and in export too of course. If you are looking to be in the place where everyone wants to be, like in Dubai, you will have to lower your price and be quite flexible. So we decided to adopt another posture.”
In any case, the caviar market seems to be booming since before Covid, the company only produced 5 tonnes per year. For the manager of the breeding farm, there are two reasons for this. First of all, China, a major producer of black gold, has been greatly impacted by the coronavirus crisis. Then, according to him, “it’s a bit sad to say, but the rich today want to show that they are rich, they want to please themselves and therefore demand increases and that pushes prices up.”
1704073396
#report #temple #expensive #foods #world #Todays #rich #show #rich
