Sturgeon Species and Their Caviar: The Complete Guide

Most caviar today comes from farmed sturgeons. Russian, Siberian and white sturgeon and crosses involving kaluga and Amur sturgeon are documented in farming and trade records. Species influences egg size and eating qualities, but neither appearance nor a grand trade name identifies the fish: the scientific name and traceability records matter.

What makes a sturgeon?

True sturgeons belong to the family Acipenseridae within the order Acipenseriformes, which also includes paddlefishes. They have a largely cartilaginous skeleton and rows of bony plates called scutes. Counts of living sturgeon species differ between taxonomic authorities.

A single species count depends on the authority and assessment date. The 2025 classification proposals discussed below help explain why newer lists differ; the sturgeon species hub brings together the individual fish profiles.

Which sturgeon species supply caviar today?

Siberian and Russian sturgeon, white sturgeon and kaluga crosses are central to modern production. EUMOFA's 2023 study, drawing on FAO production and CITES trade data for 2016 to 2020, identified white, Russian and Siberian sturgeon as Italy's principal farmed species, and Russian and Siberian sturgeon in Poland and Bulgaria.

FAO's 2019 China review described hybrids as the main farmed group and kaluga crossed with Amur sturgeon as the most common caviar source. These are not equivalent datasets: tonnes of live sturgeon include fish raised for meat, while caviar exports measure trade rather than harvest. A current worldwide ranking of caviar output by pure species is not documented.

Main species at a glance

The egg diameters below are biological reference ranges, not guaranteed measurements of finished salted caviar. Countries are documented examples, not a production ranking; blank cells mean no range is documented.

Producer colours are descriptions in Kaluga Queen's 2026 prospectus, not independent identification tests. The United States beluga entry records a 2017 facility notice, not confirmation of current pure beluga production.

The fish behind familiar names

Russian sturgeon is the fish behind much ossetra caviar, but the historical Osetra category also includes Persian sturgeon, Acipenser persicus. Ossetra, Oscietra and Osetra are trade spellings, not scientific names.

Siberian sturgeon is a separate species, not a Russian sturgeon raised in Siberia. White sturgeon is another distinct species, documented in caviar farming in Italy and California.

Beluga means the species CITES lists as Huso huso, not kaluga or a hybrid. Sevruga is associated with Acipenser stellatus, the stellate or starry sturgeon; sterlet and Adriatic sturgeon also occur in farming and trade records, but those records do not establish a global output share.

What species changes in the spoon

Beluga's reference eggs are larger than Siberian sturgeon's, but the table also shows overlapping ranges. Colour and diameter cannot establish species alone: genetics, individual development and farming conditions affect eggs, and salting and subsequent processing affect the finished product.

For texture and flavour, specific evidence is more useful than stereotypes. Kaluga Queen describes its Russian sturgeon roe as firm and elastic, with a subtle nutty aroma, and its Amur roe as smooth with a fruity aroma. These are the producer's descriptions.

How long before the first harvest?

First maturity and first caviar harvest are different milestones. The figures below describe maturity, not harvest. No comparable first harvest range is published for these species.

• Siberian: EUMOFA gives 6 to 8 years in captivity.
• Russian: FAO gives females 6 to 8 years under optimised rearing with temperature management.
• Sevruga: 5 to 7 years, and sterlet: 3 to 5 years, under the same FAO conditions.
• Kaluga: EUMOFA gives 7 to 12 years in captivity.
• Beluga: FAO gives female maturity at 9 to 12 years under optimised rearing, whereas EUMOFA reports 16 to 18 in captivity.
• For white, Amur and Adriatic sturgeon, a comparable sourced first-harvest range is not documented.

These differences matter because warmer rearing, feeding and seasonal temperature cycles change development rates.

The classic wild names and today's restrictions

Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga became familiar through fisheries in the Caspian and Black Sea region. They are not geographical guarantees today: the same species can be farmed elsewhere, and the classic three comparison examines their differences more closely.

For 2026, the five Caspian states agreed to extend their commercial sturgeon fishing moratorium. In the Black Sea, a permanent sturgeon fishing prohibition took effect under the GFCM framework on 19 April 2025; Bulgaria also introduced an indefinite national ban covering its Danube and Black Sea waters from 1 January 2026.

This is not a worldwide ban on every wild sturgeon product. International trade requires the applicable CITES permissions and compliance with national protection and fishery rules; a historical Caspian name is no evidence of lawful wild origin.

Protected fish are not a caviar category

European sturgeon, Acipenser sturio, and shortnose sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum, are the two sturgeons in CITES Appendix I. Commercial international trade in wild specimens is prohibited; both are also listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act.

However, Appendix I does not mean that no captive-bred specimen could ever be traded legally. CITES Article VII(4) provides a specific captive-breeding exception, subject to its implementation and stricter national rules. These fish belong in a conservation discussion, not a list of ordinary caviar choices.

The Yangtze sturgeon, Acipenser dabryanus, was assessed as Extinct in the Wild in 2022, not globally extinct. Equally, the Critically Endangered status of farmed species such as beluga describes the wild species' predicament, not an automatic prohibition on aquaculture.

Read the species, not the grade name

Imperial, Royal, Golden and Reserve are trade descriptions, not species or universal legal grades. Ask which fish the name describes, then compare it with the standard species code in the traceability label.

CITES Resolution Conf. 12.7 (Rev. CoP17) remains the published resolution after CoP20. Its Annex 1 contains the labelling guidelines and Annex 2 the species codes: GUE identifies Russian sturgeon, BAE Siberian and HUS beluga. A label provides traceability, not independent proof of its contents; the CITES caviar code guide explains the remaining fields, including the distinction between roe origin and repacking location.

In the EU, Regulation (EC) No 865/2006 establishes binding caviar marking requirements. US trade rules: 50 CFR 23.71; others: caviar law. These rules are separate from food naming and customs classification. The EU rules still apply in Northern Ireland; Great Britain applies its own assimilated version.

Why scientific names now differ between sources

Brownstein and Near's 2025 revision proposed five living genera, including a revived Sinosturio. Kottelat and Freyhof challenged aspects of the revision; Brownstein and Near published a further nomenclatural response on 17 February 2026.

The IUCN Sturgeon Specialist Group and World Sturgeon Conservation Society did not support the 2025 revision at their 22 October 2025 meeting. They instead proposed three living genera, dissolving Huso (so beluga becomes Acipenser huso and kaluga Acipenser dauricus) and recognising Gulf sturgeon as a distinct species. Those scientific positions are separate from CITES' nomenclature: this guide retains the CITES names used for trade documentation.

Hybrids and paddlefish: two different distinctions

A hybrid is a cross between species, not a separate wild species. For a male Amur sturgeon, Acipenser schrenckii, crossed with a female kaluga, Huso dauricus, the CITES code is SCHxDAU: male parent first under Annex 2. Paddlefish belong to the same order as sturgeons but to the family Polyodontidae. Their roe falls within the CITES caviar trade system, whereas Codex's sturgeon caviar standard covers Acipenseridae only. US FDA guidance CPG 540.150 says unqualified caviar should mean salted sturgeon roe. For other fish roe, it calls for the fish name to appear with caviar in the same type size. That is naming guidance, not a change in the fish's biology.