Altynay Sugralieva, 53, from Astrakhan, the main fish farmer at the Caspian Royal Fish Company
On the starting point
Caspian Royal Fish was founded in 2014. The sturgeon farm was built by The Finnelma Finnish company, all the equipment is by Hessy. Experts supervised the plant’s construction, our employees learnt a lot from their foreign counterparts.
In 2014 Sterlet-Segallet was brought from Karmanskyi Goz, Bashkiria, whereas sturgeon from Siberia and Lena were also supplied. Fertilized caviar of Russian sturgeon was imported From Poland. Now the sterlet has reached the commercial weight, while some of them have grown to full-fledged males. They were selected via ultrasound and were sent for implementation. A broodstock assembles sterlet female fish, which began to provide food caviar two and a half years after the delivery.
On the factory
Our factory consists of three departments with commercial fish in one. It consists of 18 pools of 37 cubic meters capacity. Each pool contains about 1.5 tons of fish. We have an incubation department where eggs are grown to a larva of three grams. Next, we send it to the commodity department to grow it up to the age of two years.
We have a wintering block as well. The conditions of keeping fish should be equated to natural conditions, so they spend their lives in the winter season for a while. Separating the mature fish or preparing it for sale we send it to the winter department with 7°C instead of the usual 22°C for 2.5 months, until caviar is obtained. This makes eggs more quality, and helps get rid of extraneous tastes of silt and fodder.
We cultivate fish in closed supply conditions
We have a closed water supply with a regulated thermal regime, allowing us to get the products at any time. Farms working at river sides receive the product only in the spring.
That is how we save water.
On fish
We produce fish, caviar and the stock. We send them to Aktau, Almaty, and Taldykorgan. Local stores and supermarkets with aquariums having live fish buy our products as live fish attracts customers. Chilled fish is also bought.
We grow three kinds of fish: sterlet Kama, Ural and Volga populations, also there are Lena, Siberian, Russian species of sturgeon and beluga.
We grow it here. Receiving caviar and putting it in the machine, we wait for the fish to grow up. It takes at least six months. Also we grow the stock.
Now the maximum capacity of 25 tons is full
There’re two ponds. Some fish is left there, as it does not fit in the factory. A ton of fish is regularly sold in a month. Wholesale purchases are usually made from Karaganda, Astana, and Pavlodar.
We feed the fish by Dutch fodder daily.
We supply Almaty, Astana, Pavlodar, Karaganda, Aktyubinsk region, and Atyrau
Our products are clean and confirmed. Our water passes a three-stage cleaning, there are no diseases. We use not antibiotics but vitamin complexes mainly.
On caviar
We receive the caviar by an intravital method, that means that the fish remains alive. We stimulate the female with some mixtures and pump out the eggs. Thus, the sterlet can spawn twice a year, sturgeon - once a year or two. In natural conditions, these intervals are longer.
We collect and pump out the caviar every single 4 months. The technologist, whom we invite from Russia, fits it in cans of 50 grams, 120 grams, 230 grams and 500 grams. Sturgeon caviar is black.
There is a certain technology called ovulated, as the caviar is pumped out while fish is alive. The caviar taken from non-alive fish is prepared for orders mainly.
On peculiarities
The competition is high now.
And quality is really important. The higher the quality is, the higher the demand is
We use river water as its biochemical indicators are suitable for farming. Artesian water is usually utilized but it’s not available due to the location.
We have three operators, three fish farmers and the main fish farmer, 12 employees in total. All departments and all the programs are automated.
Operators monitor the entire system and all the specified parameters. We have oxygen and ozone generators. Ozone reduces the press upon the biofilter.
There’re four fish farms in our region. Our fish has chips, undergo diagnostics and genetic studies. Our products are allowed to be delivered to Europe.
On plans
We have plans to enter the European market. Now we are working on it.
The fish biomass is growing so we’re planning to get caviar from Russian and Siberian sturgeons by 2020. The amount of the caviar will increase. We’re going to expand production and make technical conditions for this. More natural conditions will bring us more profit, as current conditions are quite expensive.
