CITES Certification
CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments participating in the international trade of specimens of wild animals and plants, with the goal of protecting the interests of endangered species. All authentic sturgeon caviar products must have a CITES code on the label of each tin.
UNDERSTANDING THE CITES CODE
On the back of every authentic tin of caviar is a set of letters and numbers which gives knowledgeable consumers useful information about the product they are purchasing. What follows is a short explanation of how to read this label for yourself, so you know exactly what you are about to buy or eat, and when, where and who it was produced by.
The CITES code looks similar to this: BAE/C/DE/2015/PO5/VH100
The first three letters (e.g. BAE) represent the Standard Species Code. CITES has determined three-letter codes for species identification. Attilus Royal Siberian caviar is produced from the Acipenser baerii species so it is labelled BAE; while our Royal Oscietra caviar is labelled GUE (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii). Click here to learn more about Standard Species Codes
The next letter (e.g. C) is the source code either ‘W’ for wild of ‘C’ for captive bred (or farmed produce).
The next two letters (e.g. DE) inform you about the product's Country of Origin. In our case, this will be DE for Germany.
The next four digits (e.g. 2015) are the Year of Harvest.
The next combination of letters and digits (e.g. PO5) are the Official Registration Code of the processing plant. Each country has established a national registration system for processing plants, with official registration codes assigned to individual locations. This number corresponds to that code.
The final combination of letters and digits (e.g. VH100) are the Batch Identification Number. This corresponds to information related to the caviar tracking system used by the processing or re-packaging plant, enabling the full traceability of all authentic sturgeon caviar products.
Our fishery has been producing fresh sturgeon caviar and frozen meat products since 2008. All our products are sustainably produced and our caviar is certified by CITES.
You may also be interested to know that the official seal included at the bottom of each label (an oval shape with the code ST00077 inside it) guarantees that our fish’s welfare has been supervised by state veterinary controls according to European law.
