HAGERMAN, Idaho (Reuters) - After more than a decade growing in the spring waters of a commercial fish farm in southern Idaho, five dozen white sturgeon are ready to give eggs that will be marketed to U.S. caviar connoisseurs.

The timing could hardly be better.

A recent U.S. ban on beluga caviar from the Caspian and Black seas has sparked a boom for U.S. fish farms, which are stepping in to provide gourmet stores and high-end restaurants the much-loved salted eggs, or roe, from sturgeon.

"The bottom line is, the source of caviar in the future will be fish farms," said Joel Van Eenennaam, sturgeon specialist with the department of animal science at the University of California, Davis.

The assessment follows a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service September ban on Caspian Sea beluga sturgeon products from Russia, Azerbaijan,

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Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in response to what the service says is their failure to protect the threatened species. The service last month also banned beluga imports from eastern European countries in the Black Sea basin.

Over the past two decades, a period of tumultuous change with the Soviet Union's collapse, the Caspian Sea sturgeon population has declined more than 90 percent, according to Caviar Emptor, a coalition of environmental groups.

The recent ban means that in the coming weeks record numbers of Americans gourmets may be trying the U.S. variety, which comes from white sturgeon, part of the same family but a different species from beluga in the Caspian Sea.

The period from November to New Year's Day accounts for roughly 80 percent of U.S. caviar sales.

The caviar from the farmed white sturgeon of Idaho and central California may not have the cachet of caviar harvested from beluga sturgeon. But its reputation is growing and it costs about a quarter of the price of beluga.

Mark Arnao, executive sous chef with Atelier, a four-star restaurant in New York's Ritz-Carlton hotel, said the caviar from farmed white sturgeon is good enough for the exclusive eatery. "The taste is really very good," he said.

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Raising white sturgeon is hard work.

The white-bellied sturgeon in rectangular cement ponds, known as raceways, can grow as large as 180 pounds (82 kg). Leo Ray, one of the state's three caviar producers, said moving the 5- to 7-foot (1.5- to 2.1-meter) fish from one raceway to another is an arduous task that involves a stretcher and a two-man team.

Ray expects to harvest about 150 pounds (68 kg) of precious gray-black eggs from his farm-raised white sturgeon.

This is the first year that Idaho's caviar will enter the market, and its entire production already has been hooked by Dale Sherrow, co-owner of Seattle Caviar, which specializes in retail caviar and champagne sales.

"We believe the future of this business is very strong," Sherrow said of white sturgeon farms. "People are going to want all caviar all the time."

With an historical appetite of more than 50 tons per year, the United States has been the world's leading importer of beluga caviar. America ranks third in overall caviar imports after the