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Madagascar - Only African caviar producer

Madagascar – Only African producer of Caviar #MyMadagascar #MahajangaMaVille

Madagascar – Only African caviar producer

The island becomes Africa's largest caviar producer.

Madagascar is an island full of resources for food lovers, well-known for its spices. Madagascar – Only African caviar producer.

We knew his chocolate., vanilla and foie gras, here's his caviar. The island of Madagascar consolidates its place in the luxury food market. It is Africa's only producer of sturgeon eggs.

The only one in Africa and the Indian Ocean

At the head of the company Rova Caviar, Delphyne Dabezies agrees that the bet was not won in advance on this island renowned for its poverty. “We made a lot of people laugh. But we took the time to prove to them that it was serious. And Madagascar caviar is now the only caviar produced in Africa and the Indian Ocean.”

The Big Island is still a modest player in the market, away from the top trio China, Italy, France. A ton of Caviar exited the Malagasy factory in 2018. A crumb in a global market for 340 tons of 2017.

Developing a luxury product

But its promoters, Ambitious, hope to increase their production fivefold this year. The idea of developing, in one of the world's poorest countries, a product so synonymous with luxury seems to say the least quirky…

It germinated in 2009 in the mind of Delphyne Dabezies, her husband Christophe and their partner Alexandre Guerrier, when they saw a report on a sturgeon farm in France. Three French entrepreneurs based in Madagascar.

“At the time, our luxury ready-to-wear business had become sustainable and we were looking to diversify”, remembers Mrs. Dabezies. “The three of us are great gourmets, this show served as a trigger.”

“Learning on the job”

The Big Island even seems to them an ideal terrain.

“Madagascar has completely exceptional terroirs, with rare products such as cocoa, vanillas, organic shrimp or lyitchis, stresses the CEO, we thought we could add caviar and sturgeon.”

But the path was tortuous to make Lake Mantasoa, a site perched in 1 400 m altitude east of the capital Antananarivo, the cradle of caviar “Made in Madagascar”.

The first step was to train staff. “Caviar professionals came from abroad”, tells Ianja Rajaobelina, deputy manager of the production plant, which employs 300 Employees. “I had to learn everything on the heap.”

Then we had to organize the sector. Sturgeons are imported from Russia in the form of fertilized eggs but hatch in a fish maternity hospital in Mantasoa.

In white rubber suits and boots, Say Sahema smolders their growth with the respects of a tender mother. “Care for fry and avoid giving them too much or not enough food, to have the lowest possible mortality rate”, professes.

“It rolls in the mouth”

The maturation of caviar requires mastery and patience. The first imported eggs arrived in Mantasoa in 2013. The first grams of caviar only came out of the factory 26 June 2017, Malagasy National Day.

Their quality depends on the dexterity of a young man of 23 years. Knife in hand, Gaston Soavan'i Thomas extracts eggs from the bowels of sturgeon and is not entitled to error. “At the very beginning, I was afraid to destroy or contaminate the eggs, but today everything becomes automatic.”

It remains to ensure that they are perfectly preserved. In a cold room in 0 degree Celsius, Georges Heriniaina Andrianjatovo taps each box with a small hammer to detect, to the ear, the presence of possible air bubbles. “If this is the case, the boxes are more pressed.”

It also tests the quality of the product. Color, taste and smell, George talks about it emphatically. “A good caviar has a mirror effect when opening its box. It rolls in the mouth and exudes a smell of fresh butter.

Once past the test of his palace, the product joins the displays of shops on the Big Island and its neighbours, Maurice, Seychelles or Reunion.

This is not the least of its paradoxes : in a country where nine out of ten people live on less than 2 $ per day, Malagasy caviar sells 100 euros 100 Grams – two to three times cheaper than in France.

The ton produced last year sold out in a few weeks.

This caviar enriches the menus of the gourmet restaurant Coco Lodge Majunga. Indeed, caviar can be enjoyed in this famous restaurant in the city of Majunga.

L’Hôtel★★★ RESTAURANT gourmand Coco Lodge Majunga often introduces this delicious caviar to its customers at key events such as New Year's Eve dinners, at Valentine's Dinners,…

Coco Lodge Majunga, it is also a Hotel★★★, one Gourmet restaurant, one Four-wheel-drive renter with guide driver and Event organizer (conferences, seminars, workshops, lunches/dinners with themes, wedding, anniversary, boy-girl stag, …).

For your holidays or business trips, the whole team of the Hotel ★★★ Coco Lodge will be delighted to meet your expectations and satisfy your needs. Our goal is to offer you an unforgettable stay in the city of Majunga. Coco Lodge TO organises tours of Majunga and its surroundings and many more. Discover the Anjohibe Caves, Ankarafantsika National Park, Sacred Lake, Cirque Rouge and the beaches of Majunga. There is also the Antrema reserve, the lighthouse of Katsepy, Papamena, The Poseidon, Mahavavy Kinkony Complex, Namoroka tsingys, ….

By #CocoLodgeMajunga

Strategic, dynamic, persuasive individual with 15 years experience in driving the performance of an ICT Company in the very tough environment of French Speaking African Countries. My main duties were to achieve all the targets in terms of sales, quotas and financial results (BS, P&L, FR, CFM) and be responsible for hiring and managing Human Resources teams. I am a confident, enthusiastic and inspiring individual who would enjoy partaking in areas of management, marketing, logistic, finance analysis, strategy, ISO, HR, etc.

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