The expert compared the income from the sale of counterfeit caviar with the drug business

The profits of the shadow market for the sale of poached and expired caviar are comparable to earnings from the sale of elite drugs, a source in law enforcement agencies told Izvestia.

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"The cost of caviar production by poachers is many times lower than honest fishing. Of course, shadow workers do not bear the tax burden, the cost of sanitation, high-quality supplies, qualified personnel, and storage conditions. They don't try to get quotas for trapping and so on. Their margin is exorbitant and comparable to earnings from the sale of elite drugs," the Izvestia source notes.

He pointed out that the Caspian Sea, namely Dagestan, Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region adjacent to the sea, remain the main shadow zones from where black caviar comes to the regions. Almost all of the red caviar comes from the Far East, in particular from the Sakhalin Region and Khabarovsk Territory.

According to the source, the minimum retail price for red caviar in stores is about 10 thousand rubles per kilogram, while poaching products are sold at a discount of 20%. On average, poachers offer the end user half a kilo (a plastic disc jar) for 4 thousand rubles. The black one is much more difficult to get: it has more control from the authorities. Not everyone can afford this delicacy — its cost in the store is at least 5 thousand rubles per 100 g and strongly depends on the type of fish. Poachers usually have one in three compared to red, but not everyone has it, as it is more difficult to store. For health, such products are Russian roulette.

The interlocutor of Izvestia draws attention to the fact that quite often shadow traders sell caviar of previously caught fish to their customers, which can be stored in refrigerators for years, the shelf life of products has often expired, it is dangerous to eat it.

Read more in the Izvestia article:

Caviar is not worth the candle: who sells illegal delicacies to Russians

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