TEHRAN – A caviar museum will be established in Iran’s Gilan province, which lies next to the Caspian Sea, a rich source for sturgeon species of fish such as salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, and whitefish. 

The museum will be made under a memorandum of understanding recently signed between the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts and the Agricultural Services Specialized Holding Co., which is affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad, IRNA reported on Monday.

The MOU aims at facilitating the establishment of the National Caviar Museum in the northern province to contribute to preserve cultural assets as well as deepen bilateral collaborations between the two ministries, the report said. 

Deputy tourism minister Mohammad-Hassan Talebian and the CEO of the agricultural company inked the MOU on Sunday. 

Developing fisheries tourism, preserving national resources, establishing national and international caviar trade centers, launching sturgeon breeding centers, and holding training courses and educational and recreational tours related to the caviar industry is also among the most important goals of signing the memorandum.

Last January Nabiollah Khoon-Mirzaei head of Iran Fisheries Organization announced that Iran produced Six tons of aquaculture caviar and 2,800 tons of caviar fish meat in 2019.

“Sturgeon breeding is carried out in more than 20 provinces of the country. We look forward to enhancing it throughout the whole province as studies have been carried out in this regard.”

“There are currently 128 sturgeon farms in the country that are breeding the species, and we are planning to reach an output of 100 tons of caviar and 10,000 tons of caviar fish meat by 2025.”

The Persian sturgeon (Acipenser persicus) is a species of fish in the family Acipenseridae. It is found in the Caspian Sea and to a lesser extent the Black Sea and ascends certain rivers to spawn, mainly the Volga, Kura, Araks, and Ural Rivers.

ABU/AFM