California Caviar Company

California Caviar Company is a Sausalito-based caviar business founded by Deborah Keane, which describes itself as both a white-sturgeon farmer and a supplier sourcing internationally. According to its farm page, the company raises white sturgeon at CQ Ranch and also works with farms internationally.

Company at a glance

• Founded: September 2007, according to the company ¹.
• Legal identity: California Caviar Company, LLC, according to the company's announcement of 17 December 2025 ².
• Owner: The company says it is owned and operated by Deborah Keane. California's business register does not record shareholders or ownership ^1,3.
• Headquarters: Sausalito, California, according to the secondary registry record ².
• Role: Retailer and supplier; the company also describes farming and processing. Commercial wildlife trade requires separate USFWS licensing ^1,4.
• Locations: The company identifies CQ Ranch as its farm. Independent food reporting places it in Elk Grove, California ^4,5.
• Roe: The company claims to farm white sturgeon and source additional caviar internationally. Product origins are discussed below ^4,5.
• CITES and USFWS: Facility registration and commercial wildlife licensing are separate requirements ^4,12.

Read this profile as a distinction between the business, its farm claims and the provenance of individual tins. The wider caviar houses guide explains why a brand can combine production with sourcing without all its roe sharing one origin.

Who owns California Caviar Company?

The company identifies Keane as its founder and chief executive and expressly describes the enterprise as owned and operated by her.

A secondary business-record service, Bizprofile, reports a California corporation named California Caviar Company, filed on 26 November 2007. Its displayed record, extracted from the state registry on 15 July 2025, names Deborah Keane in the officer positions and gives the Sausalito address above.

The California Secretary of State explains that ownership and shareholder information is not recorded in its business-entity database.

The company's September launch date and the reported November incorporation date describe different events. They need not conflict, but neither should be silently substituted for the other.

Does it farm its own sturgeon?

CQ Ranch is the clearest farming connection in the company's own account. Its farm page says its team spawns and raises white sturgeon there until harvest, while its chef-training page describes selecting fish and teaching harvesting, processing and curing.

Food publication Fine Dining Lovers separately identifies CQ Ranch in Elk Grove and reports that the business farms white sturgeon while sourcing from farms elsewhere. This supports describing a farming operation associated with the brand, rather than treating it simply as a reseller.

The regional context belongs in American caviar in California and the Pacific Northwest. For this house, the useful question is narrower: which lot came from CQ Ranch, and which came from an outside producer?

Where its caviar comes from

The company describes domestic white sturgeon farming and international sourcing. Its species descriptions identify product lines, while its stated tracking system links individual jars to farms, fish and harvest dates.

Scientific names distinguish fish that trade terminology can blur. The seller's occasional Siberian Osetra wording refers to Siberian sturgeon, not the Russian sturgeon identified on its Golden and Royal Osetra pages. Royal, Golden and Reserve distinguish the seller's selections; they are not species names or universally defined legal quality grades.

Likewise, its Amur Beluga wording describes the listed kaluga and Amur hybrid, not beluga, the species CITES lists as Huso huso. The cross cannot be assigned a directional hybrid code without knowing which species supplied the male parent and which supplied the female parent.

The wider range includes salmon, trout, whitefish and bowfin roe, alongside flavoured versions, plus chef-associated and Adelita lines. According to the company, tracking numbers link individual jars to the farm, fish and harvest date.

What it is known for

The most distinctive documented feature is its work with chefs. The company describes a Vault Program in which participants learn about fish selection and caviar production, with batches cured to an individual chef's formula and returned under a private label.

Its public presentation also includes the Bump Bar in Sausalito and collaborations bearing names including Jacques Pépin, Matthew Accarrino and Cat Cora. These document the brand's culinary positioning, rather than proving a particular origin, sensory quality or production method for every associated tin.

Reading origin and repacking details

A California name or Sausalito contact address does not establish Californian roe. For this company, the distinction is especially relevant because its own account combines domestic farming with international sourcing.

A repacker's location answers a handling question, not necessarily the question of where the fish produced its eggs.

The company says its products identify species, ingredients and country of origin, and that tracking numbers connect jars to farm, fish and harvest date. Ask for a photograph of the actual container, including its base and side, rather than relying on a catalogue image or the seller's address.

USFWS guidance on internationally traded sturgeon and paddlefish caviar distinguishes the processing plant, where caviar first enters a primary container, from a repackaging plant, which transfers it into new primary containers. A repacker's location answers a handling question, not necessarily the question of where the fish produced its eggs.

Such a label provides traceability information, not independent proof of species identity or the contents of the tin. Keep the lot details with any origin statement, and use country of origin versus repacking when comparing the two locations.

Registration and cross-border rules

The farm page lists US Fish and Wildlife import/export permissions among numerous licences and certifications, without publishing a licence number or validity period. USFWS explains that a commercial wildlife import/export licence is distinct from CITES and other protected-species permits; one does not replace the other.

The CITES plant register concerns processing and repackaging operations, rather than functioning as a universal register of brands or shareholders.

For US transactions, separate the seller's business registration, food-labelling responsibilities and wildlife-trade documents. The related US caviar rules cover the broader framework; a domestic listing should not be treated as permission to carry or ship the product across a border. FDA's nonbinding CPG 540.150 addresses caviar labelling, including fish names in substantially equal type and prominent declarations of artificial colour.

Check destination rules separately for the EU, Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, the UAE, China, Japan, Russia and Australia. According to USFWS, qualifying personal baggage may contain up to 125 g of caviar without CITES permits; other restrictions still apply.

A useful provenance request is specific: the scientific species name, harvest country, producing farm, processor or repacker, and lot-linked supporting record. For the California white-sturgeon lines, ask explicitly whether the batch originated at CQ Ranch; for imported selections, ask which outside producer supplied it.