A ban on the international trade in caviar was imposed yesterday because of "rampant" poaching of sturgeon on the brink of extinction in the Caspian and Black Seas.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) dropped a New Year bombshell by refusing to approve 2006 export quotas for caviar and sturgeon meat from the Caspian region, which provides 90 per cent of the world's caviar.

No doubt this is a sensible course of action - but I fear the black market trade (rumoured to be 5 times as big) will now thrive.

CITES action appeared to take the Government by surprise. It follows the announcement in September by America, the biggest importer, that it was banning imports of beluga caviar, which has placed the rest of the world under pressure to follow suit.

The US gave the Caspian states six months to file a management plan for beluga or face an import ban. None was filed by the deadline, so the US imposed the ban.

Cue a significant increase in the price of US Caviar. Only the very cynical would see a connection.