In 2009, French entrepreneurs took a massive gamble: building a luxury industry in one of the world’s poorest countries. Before Acipenser, no companies had successfully farmed caviar in Africa. Today, its caviar is served in Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe. How did they get customers from around the world to take a chance on African caviar? And why is it so expensive to raise sturgeon for "black gold"?
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00:00This is the first caviar produced in Africa.
00:06From the highlands of Madagascar,
00:07the company Assapenser harvests 10 tons
00:10of the expensive fish eggs a year.
00:13In 2009, French entrepreneurs took a massive gamble,
00:17building a luxury industry
00:18in one of the world's poorest countries.
00:22Huge sturgeon farms in China and Europe
00:25dominate the market,
00:26producing most of the world's caviar.
00:29But the company's founders were determined
00:31to raise fish for their black gold
00:33in the country they had called home since the 1990s.
00:42Now their products are making their way
00:44into the global market.
00:46The company is now the world's largest
00:49Now their products are making their way
00:50into Michelin-starred kitchens in Europe.
00:55So how did Assapenser convince Malagasy locals
00:57on a luxury industry?
00:59And how did they get customers from around the world
01:01to take a chance on African caviar?
01:08Traditional caviar can only come from sturgeon.
01:11They're native to the Northern Hemisphere.
01:13Many of the most popular species come from the Caspian Sea,
01:17where waters can be much colder than Madagascar's.
01:29That's why the founders raised their fish
01:31in Lake Montesua,
01:32about 1,400 meters above sea level.
01:35The team spent months,
01:36crossing thousands of miles
01:38in search of temperate waters like this.
01:41The lake rarely tops 25 degrees Celsius.
01:45And it gave this farm an advantage.
01:48While sturgeon in the Caspian Sea
01:50might grow slower during cold winters and hot summers,
01:53the company says fish here mature year-round,
01:56thanks to these moderate temperatures.
02:10The whole process starts in the hatchery,
02:13where they care for thousands of baby fish
02:15until they're mature enough for the lake.
02:18Sturgeon are notoriously tricky and expensive to raise.
02:22Compared to other farm fish, like salmon,
02:25sturgeon need a long time to grow.
02:27They can take a decade to mature,
02:29while a salmon only needs three years.
02:31So operating a sturgeon farm
02:33could cost five times more than a salmon one.
02:37But the team's first hurdle
02:38was keeping the fertilized sturgeon eggs alive
02:41along thousands of miles to Madagascar.
02:44They failed four times,
02:46trying to import them from France and Russia.
02:48But the fifth time was the charm.
02:50The company imported 35,000 healthy sturgeon eggs
02:54back in 2013.
03:00That's Delphine Dabouzy,
03:02one of Asa Pencer's founders.
03:11It was on June 26, 2017,
03:15the day of the first production of the first fish,
03:20that we were told there was a chance it would work.
03:27Nearly a decade later,
03:28they've grown their fish population to over 60,000.
03:32And they raise six different species,
03:34one of which was thought to be extinct.
03:37Only female sturgeon produce caviar,
03:39so once they're big enough,
03:41the team separates them by sex.
03:54Asa Pencer releases the males in the lake
03:56for local fishermen to catch,
03:59while the females head to the farm.
04:02With 16 hectares of pens,
04:04the fish have room to move.
04:10That's Gijon Bastide.
04:12He's the farm's breeding manager.
04:20They use three nets to contain the fish in the pens,
04:23one where the fish live,
04:25an extra net in case they escape,
04:27and a net on top to hold back birds.
04:31Ten full-time workers
04:32are working on the fish's survival.
04:35They're working on the fish's survival
04:38Ten full-time weavers make and mend the nets on site.
04:42It takes 31 miles of rope and a month of weaving
04:45to make just one net.
04:47Asa Pencer has hired and trained 300 Malagasy workers.
04:51The company says it pays three times the minimum wage.
05:07A team heads out to feed the fish five days a week.
05:13First, crews test the water.
05:23When there's enough oxygen, they can start adding feed.
05:37That's how the fish feed.
06:03That's how the food will sink to the bottom,
06:05where the sturgeon eat.
06:08The company produces 60 kilos of feed a month,
06:12made from a base of fish meal and vegetable meal,
06:15like soybean or rice bran, yeast, and water.
06:19If the fish aren't fed the right thing,
06:21Giron says they could take twice as long to grow.
06:38The company spends over $130,000 a month on feed alone.
06:44Asa Pencer makes the food on site
06:46and sources about 80% of its ingredients from farms nearby.
07:07Erimanda manages the feed mill.
07:10His team grinds all the raw materials into powder.
07:15Machines then cook and shape the feed into granules.
07:19The recipe and size of the pellets change
07:22based on the age of the fish.
07:33Feed is such a big expense for Asa Pencer
07:36because the fish eat so much of it.
07:57While the sturgeon feed, there's always a diver
08:00watching below the surface to see how quickly the fish eat
08:03and how deep they go.
08:07Every few months, Giron's team pulls fish out of the water.
08:16He checks for roe in the sturgeon
08:18using this ultrasound machine.
08:21These fish were born in 2017.
08:32He measures the roe to help determine
08:34which fish need more time to develop their eggs.
08:38They isolate the fish that need a few more years to mature.
08:48These females are Persian sturgeon.
08:50They'll spend the last few weeks of their lives in cold pools.
09:05This is an important step because it will help us
09:08determine if the sturgeon has any bad roe.
09:14These species can be harvested young, at only 7 years old.
09:30This sturgeon weighs 16 kilos.
09:34But they can go up to 20.
09:57The valuable roe makes up about a fourth of its body weight.
10:01Mandin Bin Salama worked as a cook before joining Assipenser.
10:17But the roe isn't finished caviar just yet.
10:20Workers run the eggs over a sieve
10:24to separate them from the fish's innards.
10:27Then they wash the eggs to remove any leftover bits.
10:35These workers spread the roe out
10:37so they can see any misshapen or discolored eggs
10:39that need to be removed.
10:43Now they race against the clock to salt the roe in a minute.
10:52Any less time and the eggs won't have
10:54a consistent salty taste.
10:57The salt, along with four months of aging in these fridges,
11:00helps develop the caviar's nutty flavor.
11:25A kilo of roeva caviar can go for over $5,000.
11:30The cost is on par with European brands.
11:33Assipenser exports 90% of its caviar to Europe.
11:37But it's up against stiff competition.
11:41China is Europe's biggest supplier.
11:44It raises sturgeon on massive farms like this one,
11:473,500 times larger than Assipenser's.
11:50Since 2014, China has been selling the most expensive caviar,
11:54the kind harvested from beluga sturgeons,
11:56seen here at a farm in Florida.
11:59But Assipenser is still years away
12:01from harvesting its first beluga roe.
12:04Because it takes nearly double the amount of time
12:06to raise the high-priced fish
12:08compared to other sturgeon species.
12:21Until then, Assipenser is trying to sell the caviar types
12:24that are ready.
12:26The company has opened offices in Paris, Brussels,
12:29and New York City,
12:30in hopes of hooking Western markets on African caviar.
12:37The team has already managed to convince chefs
12:39at some of Europe's top restaurants.
12:42But it's still a long way from being ready.
12:45Boris Campognella is the executive chef of Le Crin,
12:48a Michelin-starred restaurant.
12:51He was one of the first chefs in Paris
12:53to put roe vaux on the menu, back in 2019.
13:16He's taught dishes of torch shrimp,
13:18lamb tartare, and ceviche with roe vaux caviar.
13:26Like this dish of abalone with brown butter.
13:45And Boris isn't the only chef who's stocked these tins.
13:49About 15 restaurants across Europe now serve roe vaux.
13:53The company's success story
13:55is a testament to the fact that
13:57it's not just a matter of taste.
14:00It's a matter of taste.
14:03It's a matter of taste.
14:05It's a matter of taste.
14:07It's a matter of taste.
14:09It's a matter of taste.
14:11It's a matter of taste.
14:13The company's success abroad
14:15has allowed it to invest back into Madagascar.
14:21Assipenser started by training locals,
14:23like Tafita Soa Eriarivoni.
14:29And Menchka.
14:43At first, we had a lot of expatriates from all over the world.
14:46And today, little by little,
14:48the Malagasy have replaced the expatriates.
15:13The company provides rent-free housing for its workers.
15:17The housing site also has a grocery store,
15:19a mini-theater and a gym.
15:33That includes three meals a day.
15:36Most of the employees' food is grown on site.
15:42We want to take Madagascar to the top
15:44and get it out of poverty.
15:47The more luxury products we make in Madagascar,
15:51the more we'll help the country develop.