Hatching a new business.

When you think of caviar producers, you think of Russia and Iran, the world's major suppliers. These countries border the Caspian Sea, home to the largest concentration of wild sturgeon on Earth. However, just a few years ago, a Uruguayan company, Esturiones de Rio Negro (ERN), became the first in the Southern Hemisphere to produce sturgeon eggs on a fish farm.

After having invested US$4 million in fish-farming equipment over the last five years, the company is now exporting $800,000 in caviar a year to the United States, Japan, Europe and Latin America.

The Southern Hemisphere's first caviar business was launched in 1999, when ERN founder Javier Alcalde came across a Russian study suggesting that Australia and Uruguay could cultivate sturgeon. ERN tried it, and it worked, says Alcalde, and that means money.

"Fish are the greatest assets. We have 150,000 sturgeon that are worth $60 million," says Alcalde. "The plan is to reach 250,000 sturgeon."

In the wild, a sturgeon cannot produce caviar until it reaches 12 years of age, when it matures. Yet ERN claims it can get the fish pumping out eggs after five years thanks to Uruguayan water quality and temperature. The company is investing another $1.5 million to raise production to 7,000 kilograms of caviar a year by 2008 from the current 1,200 kilograms.

Politics have helped, says Alcalde. "Our caviar is not viewed in the U.S. as coming from a questionable origin, which could happen with Iranian products," he says.

ERN incorporates Russian know-how during the infancy phase, thanks to the Russians working there.

"There have never been instances of raising sturgeon south of the equator," says Mijail Rogov, a Russian fisheries technician who has been with ERN since its inception.