The Christmas Campaign of Iberico Ham

After some time has passed since the end of Christmas, it is time to gather some data and obtain conclusions.

These Christmas, Spanish companies have been less generous in their Christmas hampers, due to the current situation in the country and its impact in the enterprises. These does not only happen in SMEs, since also big companies have controlled more their expenses than in precedent years.

We can transfer this to the situation the Iberico Bellota Ham has gone through this Christmas. It has disappeared from most of Christmas hampers and has been replaced by other products, such as the Iberico Bellota shoulder (Paleta), worse quality ones, such as other iberico products, or by other typical Christmas products such as bottles, nougat candies, or polvorons.

This is translated into an intensification of the drop of sales of the Iberian sector. During the whole year 2011 this has been happening, but it was expected to improve during the high season of the ham: Christmas.

A lot of stockbreeders are in a desperate situation, since they produced a big quantity of product that they are not able to sell. This is causing a fall in the prices of ham. Moreover, in a lot of companies the type of production is being changed, increasing the number of pigs that are bred with feed. The descent of investment provokes, in short, a decline of quality.