DID YOU KNOW THAT ... THE CAVIAR COULD FLY?

Royal Belgian Caviar invites the horeca and the consumers to privilege the quality and the local innovation, also for the luxury products and during the holidays

Local luxury products ALSO make the difference
Consume responsibly. A large number of Belgians now apply the principle and prefer to give preference to local products, thus helping to reduce the ecological footprint. But for the holiday season and when they look for luxury goods they only order occasionally, consumers do not always follow these good resolutions, however.

100% Belgian and local caviar for the end of the year
Royal Belgian Caviar, the only Belgian producer of caviar, a 100% Belgian and local caviar, defends the preference given to local luxury products, especially if their quality matches or exceeds that of foreign competition. "With our great expertise as a gastronomic country and our passion for innovation in fine food of the highest quality, we have nothing to envy to products that come from far, on the contrary", confirms Cédric Paquet, Commercial manager of Joosen-Luyckx Aqua Bio, the company behind the Royal Belgian Caviar brand.

Renowned restaurants make the right choice
"The idea was too good not to try," says Cedric Paquet with a big smile. On his way to Hert, the new gourmet restaurant nestled at a height of 72 meters, at the very top of the Turnova Tower, he set himself the challenge of making the very first delivery of Royal Belgian Caviar by drone. . "You may say that I take my desires for reality, but innovation has been in our DNA forever. And when a great chef like Alex Verhoeven chooses our Belgian caviar, we like to celebrate it in an original way. " The brand new restaurant in the heart of the city of Turnhout has been preceded by many star chefs who have resolutely opted for the caviar of the Belgian label: Gert De Mangeleer, Roger Van Damme, Bert Meewis, Nick Bril and many others have quickly learned to appreciate the Belgian "black gold" and have systematically put it on their map ever since.

Rewarding quality and innovation

Although Royal Belgian Caviar has a strong local presence with activities spread over two sites (Turnhout and Mouscron), the Belgian quality brand continues to develop strongly abroad as well. "In 2002, the very first year of production, we produced 150kg. In 2017, we arrived just below the 4 tons of production, in 2018 we reached the milestone of 5 tons, by the end of 2019 we will be a little less than 6 tons ", confirms Cédric. Turnhout's Belgian caviar is also partly due to the growing interest in markets like Singapore, South Korea and Japan, countries that particularly value top-quality fish.

Sturgeon meat
And the success story of Royal Belgian Caviar meanwhile takes a new turn with the marketing of sturgeon meat. "Of course, we are working on the least waste, and the care with which we raise our sturgeon is rewarded with sturgeon meat of excellent quality that is the world's top gastronomy, such as restaurant 108CPH Noma) and the Alchemist restaurant, a new and growing revelation in Copenhagen, are enjoying more and more. "The Belgian consumer will soon be able to taste this still unknown product of Royal Belgian Caviar.

Joosen-Luyckx, turkey miller becomes a sturgeon breeder of international renown
The history of the Joosen-Luyckx feed and milling business, established a hundred years ago in Turnhout, is one of the best chapters in Belgian culinary history. Joosen-Luyckx, designer and owner of Royal Belgian Caviar, began his milling business in the late 1920s. After the war, the Campine company also began developing livestock feed. At the end of the 80s, while ornamental fish such as Japanese Koi and ornamental ponds are of increasing interest in Europe, Joosen-Luyckx creates Aqua-Bio, a branch of the company that focuses It will now focus on the production of high quality fish feeds and access to an emerging niche market. Joosen-Luyckx Aqua Bio started in the 1980s developing high-quality sturgeon food and was soon in contact with different sturgeon farms scattered throughout Europe. Many sturgeon farms are facing a "larval problem" at this time. In the larval stage, sturgeon larvae behave like wolverines that do not know when to stop eating. They can literally "hang on to death".
In a natural (wild) environment, food is scarce, so the larvae are constantly looking for food. In breeding conditions, the food is plentiful and easily accessible. Larvae tend to eat excessively with all that follows.

The sturgeon farms did not have a suitable diet at the time and therefore have a lot of problems keeping the sturgeon larvae alive.

AQUA BIO then develops, under the direction of the Director General Willy Verdonck (Dr. Aquaculture and nutritionist) a specific diet that can significantly reduce the mortality rate of sturgeon larvae. This invention is an important first step in the international development of the company.

The nutritional expertise of the company results in very encouraging results. In the early 90's, Aqua-Bio decided to raise their own sturgeon and build their own brood stock. The first objective pursued is to improve still further, thanks to the own breeding, the food for sturgeon, by creating in particular a food exactly corresponding to the natural nutritional diet of the sturgeon in the wild state.

The quality of the caviar depends greatly on the nutritional diet of sturgeon. Respect for the natural sturgeon diet is therefore essential. At the same time, the company plans to develop its own caviar production with its own sturgeon farm and brood stock.

With the necessary patience and the continuous search for optimal quality, the company managed to put the Belgian caviar on the Belgian market for the very first time. The annual production of +/- 150 kg is, at that time, still limited, but nevertheless arouses the interest of the media. At the end of 2019, Royal Belgian Caviar became a recognized and internationally recognized brand of caviar, both for the quality of its products and for its natural, sustainable and responsible production.