- Hangzhou-based Kaluga producer controls more than a third of global caviar sales
- Founder turned fishery official transformed China into the world’s largest caviar supplier
A Chinese sturgeon farming company that supplies caviar to Lufthansa first class cabins and Michelin-starred restaurants from Europe to Asia is seeking a Hong Kong listing, underscoring China’s growing dominance in one of luxury dining’s most exclusive markets.
Hangzhou Qiandao Lake Sturgeon Technology Co., known as Xunlong Technology, recently filed for an IPO in Hong Kong. If successful, it would become the city’s first listed caviar producer.
The company accounted for 36.1% of global caviar sales in 2025 and has maintained a market share above 30% for five consecutive years from 2021 to 2025, according to its prospectus.
Roughly one in every three tins of caviar sold worldwide now comes from the Chinese company.
Xunlong reported revenue of 769 million yuan ($113 million) in 2025 and net profit of 365 million yuan, giving it a profit margin of 47.5%. Overseas markets contributed 83.8% of total revenue.
Founder Wang Bin was previously a deputy division director at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences. In 1998, he helped establish the academy’s sturgeon breeding engineering center and began exploring the commercial potential of farmed sturgeon.
Five years later, at age 33, he quit his job to set up shop on his own and released his first batch of 50,000 sturgeon into Hangzhou’s Qiandao Lake.
The early years were difficult. Summer temperatures in southern China repeatedly exceeded the fish’s tolerance levels, causing decimation and heavy losses.
Wang later built a massive concrete cooling system that pumped colder water from 20 meters below the lake surface, allowing the sturgeon to survive the hottest months.
A larger breakthrough came in 2009, when he established breeding and processing facilities along the Wujiang River in Quzhou, Zhejiang province, after finding a reliable cold-water source.
The site later became Asia’s largest caviar processing and breeding center, with sturgeon survival rates climbing above 97%.
The company’s turning point arrived in 2011, when Lufthansa launched a global tender for caviar suppliers. In two rounds of blind testing, Xunlong’s Kaluga Queen caviar beat 25 competing samples from traditional producers including Russia and France.
After visiting the company’s facilities in China, Lufthansa executives selected it as its exclusive global supplier.
Since overtaking rivals in 2015, Xunlong has remained the world’s top-selling caviar producer for 11 consecutive years. Its products are now sold in 46 countries and regions and supplied to airlines including Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, and Cathay Pacific. The company also supplies numerous Michelin three-star restaurants worldwide.
China has emerged as the world’s largest caviar producer, with 2025 sales reaching 436.8 tons, accounting for 54% of global volume. Its production is projected to reach 898.2 metric tons by 2030, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 15.5% and accounting for an estimated 66.8% of global supply.
Industry data cited in the prospectus show worldwide caviar consumption rose from 402.5 tons in 2019 to 729.2 tons in 2024, with demand expected to reach 1,230.9 tons by 2029.
Xunlong currently operates eight breeding bases across China, including sites in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Hunan, and Sichuan provinces.
