Buenos Aires, March 10 (IANS/EFE) A Russian-owned company will begin production of caviar in the northwestern Argentine province of La Rioja, a spokesman for the regional government said.

Esturiones & Caviar SA signed a 15-year concession contract with the government of La Rioja. It will operate the fish farming plant in the town of Anillaco, where sturgeon will be raised for their precious eggs - caviar.

This will be the second caviar production operation in Latin America, after the largest sturgeon farm in the world opened in Uruguay in 2007.

The company predicts that in eight years, after going through the proper preparation cycles, it will achieve an annual production of 10 tonnes of caviar, said a press release.

The Anillaco plant will begin operating within 15 days and that the sturgeon eggs will arrive from Russia in about a month.

The plant will also serve as a laboratory for the study of sturgeon, a species that is in danger of extinction, and the data gathered at the plant will be analysed by a Russian biological institute.

Ninety percent of the world sturgeon catch is made in the Caspian Sea, where fewer and fewer of the fish are being caught ever since it was put on the endangered species list.