Caviar export quotas have been set for five Caspian countries – Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan – for this year. There were no quotas in 2006, as the sturgeon population in the Caspian Sea reduced to critical, Willem Wijnstekers, Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), said on Tuesday. The convention entered into force in 1975, and the former Soviet Union signed in document in 1974. The convention became valid for Moscow in 1976. This year’s quotas, set by the CITES Secretariat on coordination with Caspian countries, are 15% smaller than they were in 2005. In some species the quotas are 30% smaller. There are five types of sturgeon on the list. There are no quotas for beluga caviar, the most expensive caviar in the world, because Caspian countries “have not supplied full statistic information about that sturgeon species.” Last year’s decision not to set quotas for selling Caspian caviar caused the appearance of regional scientific and industrial programs for restoring the sturgeon population, Wijnstekers said. In his words, it will take decades before sturgeon stops being an endangered species and large-scale production will become possible without damaging ecology. The restrictions are applied both to the producers and importers, he said. Importers must strictly control the legality of products and firmly stop illegal caviar trade, he said. (ITAR-TASS)