Word: caviar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Pahlavi's reputation would be sullied if he shared the Shah's famously imperious manner and tastes. (At a 1971 celebration of 2,500 years of the Persian Empire, an entire ton of Iranian caviar was consumed.) So far, the Crown Prince has avoided being tainted with the family reputation. He drives a Jeep, wears a black plastic watch and says he plans to give up caviar. He can come across as a sort of Al Gore--earnest, consciously cerebral, techie. If the prospect of an Iranian Gore sounds grim, consider the alternatives--either before 1979 or after...
...Caviar, experts say, should always be judged by quality and taste, not price. One price that would be too high to pay, though, would be the extinction of the sturgeon, considered the world's most valuable wildlife resource...
...Caspian accounts for about 90% of the world's caviar. While official catch levels peaked at about 30,000 tons in the late 1970s, myriad factors - including reduced river flow, destruction of spawning sites, poaching, organized crime, corruption and illicit trade - have contributed to a decline in the past 20 years. Before the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, that country and Iran controlled the world caviar market. They invested heavily in maintaining fish stocks, and tracking the source of any shipment was straightforward. In the post-Soviet era, though, that system collapsed and private entrepreneurs moved...
...long-term survey program and to boost their efforts in combating illegal harvesting and export, as well as in regulating their domestic trade, which also includes sturgeon meat. The 2002 export quota will be 9.6% lower than the 2001 levels, totaling some 142 tons of caviar from five sturgeon species. The legal trade is estimated at about $100 million a year - a figure believed to have been dwarfed at least 10 or 12 times over in recent years by the illegal catch in the four former Soviet republics. In the first post-Soviet decade, poaching evolved into a lucrative, high...
Some of that caviar, CITES says, has found its way to the United Arab Emirates, where unscrupulous dealers - taking advantage of the country's business-friendly climate - have re-exported it. Unsatisfied with the U.A.E.'s response to the problem - involving an estimated $21 million in illegal caviar in the first 10 months of last year - CITES has suspended all wildlife trade with the Persian Gulf state...