When Delphyne Dabezies first announced her plans to launch Africa’s first caviar manufacturer, some in the luxury food industry were incredulous.
But now, 15 years since founding her company, Acipenser, with its Rova and Kasnodar Caviar brands, Dabezies’ products have made their way into some of the most prestigious kitchens in the world.
High in the mountains of Madagascar, just east of the capital Antananarivo, Lake Mantasoa has emerged as an unlikely source of this opulent ingredient. “Every expert was saying it was impossible,” Dabezies told CNN.
The history and luxury of caviar
Caviar is a delicacy made from the salted eggs of sturgeon fish. Traditionally sourced from Russia’s Caspian Sea, it gained luxury status in the 17th century after Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich I made caviar a state monopoly.
Production soon spread around the world. With the establishment of Acipenser in Madagascar, caviar is now produced on every inhabited continent other than Australia.
Due both to its cultural significance and the long maturation period of sturgeon fish – between eight and 20 years – caviar can fetch prices as high as $27,000 a teaspoon.
Inspired by a television program on sturgeon farming in France, French trio Dabezies, her husband Christophe, and their friend Alexandre Guerrier, decided to pursue a similar project in their adopted home of Madagascar, where they were already working in the textile trade.
Dabezies said they began “without any knowledge” of caviar production.
“Nobody in the beginning though it was possible, and nobody wanted to help us,” Dabezies said. It took the arrival of a retired sturgeon farming expert Francoise Rennes, on vacation in Madagascar, to help them get their project of the ground. And then one day, driving to their weekend house, they saw the lake.
Lake Mantasoa is situated at an altitude of approximately 1,400 meters (4,590 feet) in the Madagascan highlands, a temperate zone atypical for the tropics. It turned out to be “absolutely the perfect environment to grow the sturgeon,” said Dabezies. Unlike in the Northern Hemisphere where low water temperatures can cause the fish to stop growing, Lake Mantasoa ranges between 13 and 23 degrees Celsius, allowing the fish to grow year-round. Consequently, Dabezies’s fish mature around two years faster.
Soon, the dream of three novice sturgeon farmers became a reality. Today, their caviar production comprises both land and lake-based ponds in Madagascar, farming six species of sturgeon.
Breaking into the global market
The culinary world was wary when Acipenser produced the first batch of its premium Rova Caviar, named after the historical Madagascan Queen’s Palace in Antananarivo, in 2017. Madagascar is known for its vanilla, not its fish eggs.
“At the beginning it was difficult,” said Dabezies. “Everyone was laughing – it was a joke. But the only way to prove that the caviar is excellent is to taste it.”
The opportunity arrived when Europe’s top chefs sampled the produce at the prestigious culinary expo Sirha Lyon in 2019. Since then, Rova Caivar has appeared on high-end menus around the world, including the five-star Hôtel de Crillon in Paris and the Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz.
“Here we have a caviar that is full of indulgence,” said Julia Sedefjian, who was the youngest ever chef to run a Michelin-starred kitchen in France, and who created a dish with Rova Caviar for last December’s La Grande Tablée in Paris, a gala dinner presented by nonprofit La Tablée des Chefs. “A caviar that could suit all palates, (with a) buttery, brioche-like and hazelnut flavor on the finish.”
The caviar has proved popular in Africa, too; Le Saint-Gerán Hotel in Mauritius, and the Constance Lemuria and Constance Ephelia in the Seychelles have all served it.
“For chefs now, it’s a selling point to have caviar from Madagascar on the plate,” Dabezies argued.
Rova’s most expensive product sells for €11,670 (around $11,960) per kilogram.
Investing in the community
Madagascar is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth and is home to thousands of species found nowhere else in the world. Dabezies, along with Christophe and Guerrier, has lived there for nearly 30 years.
“It’s given us a lot,” she said, and so “the most important thing is that the business provides a profit to local people and to the country.”
Acipenser employs around 300 people, 80% of whom are from the local municipality of Ambatolaona. The company provides training in fish farming and caviar production, and offers medical coverage, literacy courses and family planning education.
It has recently been granted a lease by the government that will allow it to re-forest and protect 200 hectares of hills around Lake Mantasoa.
Acipenser says it is taking steps to ensure the lake’s sustainability, including by restocking it to support local fisheries, installing a water monitoring system, and facilities to prevent water pollution.
“A unique place with incredible potential”
The ultimate goal for many caviar makers is to produce Beluga caviar, the most expensive and luxurious form of caviar, made from the Beluga sturgeon, the species that takes the longest to mature and that produces the biggest eggs.
As of last year, Acipenser had its first Beluga fish in Madagascar. This year, it is aiming to produce Beluga caviar for the first time.
“Madagascar is a unique place with incredible potential,” Dabezies said, “We are proud to be a part of its story and to share its treasures with the world.”
