If the ruble’s meltdown has you thinking ‘Perfect! Time to splurge on a fabulous fur mink and throw a caviar vodka party!’ - think again.
There isn’t going to be a run on Russian luxury goods, because all the rich, exclusive things you’d typically think are made in Russia (caviar, vodka, and mink furs) actually aren’t.
Here’s where your favorite Russki loot really comes from (just don’t tell Park Avenue.)
Caviar, Anyone?
“We haven’t imported anything from Russia in, I would say 7 or 8 years,” Alexandre Petrossian, the Vice President of Petrossian told Bloomberg. The world’s largest caviar distributor, the company sources its product from the US, Israel, Europe and China. “The Russians have only one farm that produces caviar and it’s not a big farm,” Petrossian explains.
In the 1920s, the Petrossian brothers made fish eggs into an immaculate delicacy by selling Caspian Sea beluga to the high-society of Paris. Fast forward nearly a century, and they’re selling farm-raised sturgeon eggs from America to Americans. (From $53 to $394 an ounce.)
We can thank overfishing, pollution and poaching for that. To salvage what’s left of the world’s wild caviar-producing sturgeon, signatory nations to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), restricted imports and exports in 2005.
An American Field Day
It’s why Russian beluga is hard to come by, and - since American caviar passed elitist epicurean taste tests - why farmers are having a field day.
“We have four producing farms, and an exclusive contract with Petrossian,” said Sheoching Bishop, managing director at Sterling Caviar, a Sacramento, California based producer. “The majority of our caviar goes to them,” added Bishop. The farms are expected to generate around $10 million in revenue just this year.
If, however, you simply must have Caspian caviar, ask the company for proof of origin by its CITES number. A few small purveyors, like the Black Caviar Company, are using this to their advantage by slapping the regulator’s seal on their tins.
Sly Mink
The next time you see a sultry seductress swathed in a mink coat, you can think: ’Hey! you got that from Denmark.’ (Or Finland, or North America - but almost certainly not from Russia.)
“People think mink furs are Russian because of the way they’ve dressed for centuries - from the aristocracy on down. But Denmark is the largest producer of mink, which makes up 75 per cent of fur sales,” said Keith Kaplan, executive director of the Fur Council of America (FICA,) which cites Finland and North America as the second and third largest producers, respectively.
The thrill of the chase is also a myth. There aren’t brave explorers catching your minks by hand in the snowy far reaches of the Siberian plains. No, the for-auction mink typically faces a far less dramatic fate - like being raised on a farm in Wisconsin, where they make cheese.
“Most minks are farm-bred in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Copenhagen, and Finland,” said Marc Kaufman of New York based Kaufman Furs. A furrier since he was five, when he swept the floors in the family’s shop, the now-owner Kaufman sends dealers to fur auctions to vet the inventory.
Which minks are best? “Quality depends on the farm, but Copenhagen and North America are considered the finest. We go by touch, feel and the way it looks, ” adds Kaufman, happily selling full-lengths for $9,000 and counting.
Can we strike a Gloria Swanson pose now? Not without a martini.
Drink Like a Russian
Globally, the two biggest vodka brands are Smirnoff and Absolut, according to market research firm Statista. Neither are Russia-made, despite Russian marketing references. Absolut, like fellow market heavyweight Svedka, is made out of Sweden. Smirnoff states on its website that the spirit “traces its heritage back to 19th century Russia,” but today’s Smirnoff - be it passion fruit-flavored or otherwise - has more to do with Illinois than Russia.
“The majority of all Smirnoff for the US is made and bottled at our largest North American production site in Plainfield, Illinois,” Alix Dunn, director of communications for Diageo North America, wrote in an email. Diego, the world’s biggest distiller, owns the Smirnoff brand.
Even the Stolichnaya bottles that you see in so many bar wells in the US don’t hail from Mother Russia – rather they’re produced by a private company out of Luxembourg. That group, SPI, was hit by a #dumpstoli boycott from gay groups in 2013 in protest against Russia’s anti-LGBT policies – and has striven to separate itself from the image of the Russian government. (The latter produces its own version of Stoli, which is sold domestically.) And Popov, that purveyor of cheap plastic handles for college parties, may boast an onion dome on its label – but it, too, is owned by British conglomerate Diageo. And it’s bottled in the US.
Feeling Disillusioned
If, right about now, you’re feeling the same way you felt when you discovered that your pint of Häagen-Dazs was made in Maryland, you’re not alone. It’s just not as special if it’s not made by a Danish milkmaid.
But don’t lose heart, Russophile. You can still warm the winter nights with your authentic niche bottle of Russian Standard’s Imperia, sipped under the flaps of an Ushanka hat. Just don’t expect the currency crisis to make it much cheaper.
“The ruble’s fall won’t have a material impact on these companies,” said Jason Derise, European beverage analyst for UBS, echoing a general luxury market consensus). “Some just have a Russian sounding name! Sometimes the brands can get away with it, sometimes they can’t.”
At least we know the difference.
Related: The 2014 Caviar tasting guide, from Bloomberg Pursuits.
News by Bloomberg, edited by ESM
