Tehran, Sept 16, IRNA -- Iranian exports of highly prized caviar have declined 60 percent since March compared with the same period a year before, a senior official said, blaming the Sept 11 attack for the snag, press said Monday.

The Persian daily Iran cited the head of the Iranian Fisheries Trade Company, Mohammad Reza Hosseini, as saying this was due to a decrease in the number of international flights, in which part of the exported Iranian caviar is served, after the terror attack on American landmarks.

"Because of declining demand for caviar in the world market, only 10 tons of this staple have been exported (from Iran), which compares with 25-30 tons of the country's exports a year ago," the paper cited him as saying.

Hosseini said caviar prices in the world markets had also plunged between 10 to 15 percent. Each kilo of the Iranian caviar currently sells for 650 euros in the international market, he added.

Iran exported 70 tons of caviar last year, which brought the country 45 euros in hard currency. Europe is the major market for the Iranian caviar, accounting for 80 percent of the exports.

He said the decline started right after the Sept 11 attack during October, November and December when Iran exports most of its caviar.

Iran is expecting its annual caviar production to top 100 to 150 tons by 2010, the head of the Iran's Fisheries Research Institute Sohrab Rezvani said in August.

Iran, along with Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, accounts for 90 percent of world trade in black caviar, which earns 100 million dollars for them annually.

The four latter states pledged in June not to fish sturgeon this year, after the standing committee, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) warned that the Caspian Sea poaching had reached the scale of organized crime and amounted to 13 times the legal catch, putting the sturgeon population on the brink of extinction.