| Kaluga Queen | |
| Location: | Kecheng District, Quzhou, Zhejiang, China |
| Area Served: | Worldwide |
| Products: | Caviar |
Kaluga Queen is a Chinese brand of caviar made by the caviar company Hangzhou Qiandaohu Xunlong Sci-Tech Co., Ltd. The company produces 60 tonnes of caviar annually, making it the largest producer of caviar in the world and responsible for 60% of world production.[1] [2] Kaluga Queen supplies caviar for 21 of the 26 3-starred Michelin restaurants in Paris.[1]
Kaluga Queen was founded in 2003 by Hangzhou Qiandaohu Xunlong Sci-Tech Co., Ltd., a caviar company affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences.[3] [4] The caviar processing facility was constructed in 2004 and the Kaluga Queen brand created in the following year.[4]
Several years after the founding of the company, CITES imposed a severe curtailment of wild caviar from the Caspian Sea region, creating an opportunity for caviar farming startups to take market share from the traditional caviar powers of Russia and Iran.[5]
The sturgeon are farmed at Qiandao Lake, a man-made lake surrounded by little in the way of industry.[5] [3] There are about 50,000 sturgeon maturing at the farm.[5] At age 6 when the sex of the sturgeon becomes apparent, the males are separated from females for immediate processing while the females continue to be nurtured in pens.[2]
The mature sturgeon are shipped in water-filled trucks from the lake to a processing facility in Quzhou.[5] At the facility the sturgeon's eggs are taken out and "checked, re-rinsed, salted, and sealed in tins in less than 10 minutes".[5] [3] [4] The sturgeon without eggs is smoked and exported mostly to Russia.[3]
The company raises 5 different species of sturgeon each producing a different variety including beluga.[2]
Kaluga Queen's caviar has been favorably reviewed. A writer for Newsweek praised the brand's Schrenckii caviar as having peerless "power and intensity".[5] French chef Alain Ducasse serves it at his portfolio of restaurants.[4]
Media coverage of Kaluga Queen has often focused on the Chinese origins of the brand but not the quality, noting the lack of association between China and caviar. A piece in that's magazine noted that while Kaluga Queen is "hugely successful", the brand still finds it difficult to gain recognition in the international community.[6]
At the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit, which was held in the company's home province of Zhejiang, world leaders attending the summit, were served Kaluga Queen caviar.[2]