Iran Takes on Soviets in Italy ‘Caviar War’
Iran is counting on pollution to help it win a “caviar war” with the Soviet Union for control of the lucrative Italian market for sturgeon eggs.
The Italian business weekly Il Mondo said Iran’s revolutionary leader, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, called for an all-out offensive to capture the caviar market in Italy.
“Starved of foreign exchange, the ayatollah of Tehran has decided to restore regularity and prestige to Iranian production of the sturgeon’s egg, which was blocked by the Islamic revolution,” the magazine said.
Officials at the Soviet caviar-exporting agency, Prodintorg, were working on a strategy to defend their near-monopoly in the Italian caviar market. But businessmen importing the Iranian product said they are sure they can win Italy’s palates.
“Our caviar is less well known but more appreciated than the Russian,” said a senior manager of Bono caviar, the Italian firm that markets caviar for Iran’s state-run trading company, Porimex.
Giuseppe Bossoni of Bono caviar said Iranian caviar tastes better because Iran’s side of the Caspian Sea, where much of the world’s caviar is spawned, is less polluted than the Soviet side.
Bono anticipates that Iranian caviar sales will be $750,000 this year. Sales of Soviet caviar last year were estimated at about $800,000.
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