Azerbaijan may stop caviar exports, official says

Azadliq, Baku
14 Apr 06

A senior Azeri official has said that if for some reason the UN
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, does
not endorse quotas for the export of caviar for this year, Azerbaijan
will take into consideration a ban on the export of caviar from the
Caspian Sea and stop exports.

In an interview with the newspaper Azadliq on 14 April, Rauf Haciyev,
department head at the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry, said
that if need be, Azerbaijan might sell black caviar to Armenia.

The paper added that this has actually happened already. It quoted the
chairman of the Armenian State Customs Committee, Armen Avetisyan, as
remarking earlier that black caviar had been brought to Armenia from
Azerbaijan.