produces 15% of the world's caviar.

The group is based in the Lombardy region

and is split into two companies:

Ars Italica Caviar, which farms sturgeons

near the city of Cassolnovo,

and Calvisius Caviar, based in Calvisano,

where the two companies also share the extraction facility.

In total, both farms stretch over 250 acres of land

and breed seven species of sturgeon,

with 28 tons of caviar produced per year.

The most expensive caviar produced here, Beluga,

costs $5,700 per kilogram.

We visited Ars Italica's farm where there are four species:

Russian sturgeons, starred sturgeons, Adriatic sturgeons

and sterling sturgeons in the albino variety.

At this site, we can find 300,000 sturgeons

that can go from 1 year old up until 20 years old,

and they can reach a weight of up to 60 kilos,

and actually this site is close

to a natural reserve that's called Ticino.

The fresh water and clean climate of the natural reserve

make an ideal home for the sturgeon, which spends

its first years in indoor incubators with well water

and is then moved to an outdoor water supply

fed with resin water.

- Claudia: Sturgeons take from eight to 20 years

to produce their eggs, depending on their species.

At the top of the chain is Beluga,

which takes 20 years to mature.

When ready, the belly of the fish is sliced open

and the egg sac is removed.

After extraction, eggs are rubbed over a metal grate

and then rinsed to remove any impurities.

As flavors differ from fish to fish,

eggs from each sturgeon are packed individually.

The eggs are then salted following the "malossol" recipe,

which means there is a less than 3% salt content.

Then the eggs are packaged

and will be mature and ready to be eaten in a few months

depending on which sturgeon breed they come from

and on customers' preferences.

Oscietra caviar comes from Russian sturgeon,

Sevruga from starred sturgeon,

and Da Vinci from the Adriatic sturgeon.

- So we just left the production facility

where we've seen how caviar was extracted and packaged,

and now I've got in front of me a caviar tasting plate,

and we've got the Oscietra in both Royal and Imperial,

and then we've got the Sevruga one.

The right way to taste caviar is to either use your hands

or, if you want to use cutlery,

with a spoon made from mother-of-pearl or bone

because metal could alter caviar's natural taste.

Mmmh. So my favorite one is actually the Imperial one.

It really has some sort of nutty taste.

It's kind of strong.

It's less fishy. It's a bit more creamy in your mouth.

Twenty-seven species of sturgeons exist in nature.

However, as much as 85% of wild sturgeons

are now on the brink of extinction,

and regulations have been in place since 1998

banning wild caviar trade and fishing.

This is why many caviar farms use sustainable aquaculture

to produce their delicacy.