Riofrio Caviar and the rise of organic aquaculture in Andalusia
Over 60 years ago, three good friends decided to start Spain’s first-ever commercial fish farm, in Navarra. Piscifactoria de Riofrio, as it was called, began to expand with new facilities into Riofrio in Granada. Here, on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, they found crystalline and pristine waters of Rio Frio (cold river in Spanish) flowing out of the mountains’ depths.
An investment into the Mediterranean sturgeon (Acipenser naccariii) followed. This ancient living fossil, which was first recorded in existence over 250 million years ago, was given a new lease of life in the pleasant, natural waters of Rio Frio where its numbers have been boosted through aquaculture and in collaborative university research projects.
An average period of eight years is usually required to distinguish gender, upon which females are then matured for eight more years to produce the valuable caviar. Today, the organic certification of Riofrio caviar is controlled by strict European regulations drawn up by the Andalusian Committee for Ecological Aquaculture concerning sturgeons and caviar.
The resultant Organic Caviar de Riofrio is vacuum packed in a glass jar, with no maturation and no preservatives added. Meanwhile, a Russian-style Riofrio Caviar packed in a metal tin offers mild aromas and a flavoursome dollop of umami.
