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Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

theguardian.com

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Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#121

Post by tpm »

VeejayRampay wrote: post #110
lhopki01 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This hasn't been true for decades. There are no milk lakes anymore because of the CAP. Spreading lies doesn't help matters.

There's been a change 2 years ago with the end of quotas [1] Also, I'm absolutely not trying to spread lies about the topic, just pointing out that there's no good reason for France to be facing a shortage of butter given our dairy-production capacity (and those of our European neighbours). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_quota

No, the reason is the end to the milk quota system and market adapting to the new reality. At first the price of milk plunged and production went down, but then demand for milk fat (mainly) shot up. Butter was very expensive in many EU countries for a while, now returning to lower prices as production again rises. So the farmers are not throwing milk away because of EU regulation, on the contrary, currently they can sell everything they produce. And if they overproduce, it's not a failure of the EU regulation anymore.

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#122

Post by bpicolo »

namdnay wrote: post #67
wklauss wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only a matter of time before you start seeing ham cured in the same fashion but produced in other countries. US is now starting to have local production in Virginia and Texas (it takes between 2 and 3 years for a good leg of jamón to cure properly) and China is doing the same. Spain might try to protect the trademark of "jamón ibérico" the same way that France protects Champagne but in the end, you'll be able to…

It's not a trademark, it's a designation of geographical origin. France doesn't "protect" Champagne - it's just that if you call something Champagne it has to be real Champagne - i.e. be made in Champagne, following the Champagne method. Just like Campana Mozza, Feta, etc. It's as much for the consumer as it is for the producer. And there are rows of "Sparkling Wine according to the Champagne method" in French superm…

> France doesn't "protect" Champagne

They sure do. They bake regulations on the naming into foreign trade agreements

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#123

Post by bpyne »

edwinjm wrote: post #105
danso wrote: post #5

Besides this ham, evidently Chinese demand has been blamed for the global shortage of avocados [0] and the lack of butter in France [1]. I've personally most noticed the effect when it comes to wide-release movies, in which the heroes manage to find some reason to end up for a brief scene in China, or to use Chinese brand products -- Civil War, Transformers, and Robocop come to mind. There's also the suspicion that A…

At the same time European movies had to cut down on the showing of breasts to suit the US market. We think that's kind of amusing. Imagine kids seeing breasts! The horror!

The US market presents a bit of a challenge in that the country is so large with distinctly different cultures. Some parts may as well be called Puritanical while others are more to the Western European mindset.

The parents around my area have no problem with children seeing breasts or other body parts. Scenes involving intimacy on shows and in movies provide a good segue into conversations about sexuality. But, we have a major problem with characters slaughtering one another in gun violence.

The reality is that we simply watch more Amazon and Netflix original series/movies, in which body parts and sexuality are more likely, and avoid shoot-em-up blockbusters.

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#124

Post by kaoD »

kevinconaway wrote: post #99
kaoD wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have a saying here in Spain: from swine, even the gait. Yes, they only have two hinds each, but front legs are sold too (paletilla), papada (jowl), morro (snout), manitas (hoof), lengua (tongue), oreja (ears), various embutidos (cold meat) made traditionally stuffing meat and fat inside pork intestines (like chorizo, salchichón...) And of course everything else that's traditionally edible anywhere in the world (lo…

> We have a saying here in Spain: from swine, even the gait. The American version is “everything but the oink”

Oh, we eat the oink too! ;)

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#125

Post by loopbit »

dgut wrote: post #43
angarg12 wrote: post #35

We spaniards are just absolutely terrible at marketing. Every time that I see how italians have managed to convince the world to consume their produces, I feel ashamed. And when we finally manage to get recognition, we can't meet the demand because we are not set up to deal with international demand. I hope this trend continues and we find new, healthier ways to expand our economy.

I've heard this been mentioned before, but I entirely disagree. The more likely culprit is the 35 years of post-war Franco rule, it crippled Spain under a period when most global brands were being established. It's also no coincidence Zara was founded in 1975, now the world's largest apparel retailer.

At some point we'll have to stop blaming Franco for every problem we have. Yes, it was a time of isolationism that crippled us in many ways, but most of the people working today never lived through the worst of it. Even companies that were founded while Franco lived (or before) are now managed by a younger[0] crowd

In my (very personal) opinion, the fact that not many people, comparatively speaking, are fluent in any language other than the local languages and a certain level of short sightedness that makes us look only to local markets[1] has much more to do today than the dark ages of the dictatorship.

I moved out of Spain more than a decade ago and things seem to be changing (at least now I find spanish products in my local supermarket that I had to bring in my luggage before when I went for a visit), but we are late to the game and it will take time to catch up.

[0] Well, -ish

[1] Not exclusively a Spanish fault... Many countries suffer this to certain level.

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#126

Post by WillReplyfFood »

derda wrote: post #76
amelius wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if the Chinese copy your product right after you have scaled up production?

In case of baby milk powder the alternatives exist on the Chinese market. Even german brands are present in Chinese supermarkets. But after some high profile cases regarding low quality products[0], some people are willing to pay a decent premium for a product sourced from a European supermarket. On the height of this crisis I have actually seen signs "max 2 packets per person" for baby milk in german supermarkets cl…

Basically people are paying a premium for the service of a bureaucratic but well working state with a food controll system. Its allmost like taxes.

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#127

Post by [deleted] »

dagw wrote: post #60
garyclarke27 wrote: post #21

Worth every penny -Spanish/Portuguese Iberico ham is sensational, melts in your mouth whilst bursting with flavour. As good as the best: Japanese Tuna Sashimi, Scottish grass fed Rib Eye steak, Iclandic Cod, US CheeseBurger, Bordeaux Wine, Thai Dom Yum Goong, Indian Tandori Chicken, Chineese Peeking Duck, Berlin Curryworst, Portuguese Custard Tart, Italian Margarita Pizza, French Butter Croissants or even Mcdonald’s…

Worth every penny Yes and no. Plenty of "good enough" Spanish/Portuguese Iberico ham is definitely worth it. The super high end stuff costing ~€100/kg that this article seems to largely be about I probably wouldn't consider "worth every penny" and I'd probably rather have twice as much ham costing 'only' €50/kg given a choice.

[deleted]

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#128

Post by seanmcdirmid »

jfoutz wrote: post #9
danso wrote: post #5

Besides this ham, evidently Chinese demand has been blamed for the global shortage of avocados [0] and the lack of butter in France [1]. I've personally most noticed the effect when it comes to wide-release movies, in which the heroes manage to find some reason to end up for a brief scene in China, or to use Chinese brand products -- Civil War, Transformers, and Robocop come to mind. There's also the suspicion that A…

Only 20 foreign movies are allowed into China per year. Unless part of the movie takes place in China. Lots of movies have a special cut, just for that reason.

This is no longer true, it’s up to 39 now for a few years. The Chinese co-production status is more about clawing back a higher percentage of viewing receipts from the state-owned film distributor.

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#129

Post by seanmcdirmid »

Retric wrote: post #100
xchaotic wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This always reminds me that the city of Chongqing has 30m people and most people have never heard of it.

It's closer to 6-7 million: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16761784 Many of the 30 million people who are said to live in the city of Chongqing are actually agricultural workers living in a rural setting, he says. In fact, he says, the area is so huge it's about the size of Austria.

Beijing also. Officially it has 20 million people but less than 10 million are urban. Chinese cities are defined like little states.

Re: Spaniards face ham shortage as Chinese market gets taste for jamón ibérico

#130

Post by seanmcdirmid »

kercker wrote: post #83
jfoutz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 20 foreign movies are allowed into China per year. Unless part of the movie takes place in China. Lots of movies have a special cut, just for that reason.

From this link ( http://chinafilminsider.com/foreign-films-in-china-how-does-... ), I can tell that China import at least 34 foreign movies per year.

They changed it to 39 a few years ago. That is just a limit, not a target.
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