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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

#81

Post by dagw »

duiker101 wrote: post #75
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.

Now that's an interesting thing that I had no idea was happening! Do you have any examples of movies that have an extended cut to include scenes from China?

Iron Man 3 is one such movie. There is a rather out of place China only product placement scene for some drink, a scene where Iron Man is seen visiting china on TV and a final scene where Tony goes to China to have a Chinese doctor (played by a famous Chinese movie star) help operate on him to remove the shrapnel from his chest.

All the scenes can be found of Youtube.

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

#82

Post by jpatokal »

VeejayRampay wrote: post #79
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…

Frenchman here, the shortage of butter is partly related to an increase in consumption of butter in China (and the United States as well) but honestly it is also partly explained by a problem with the supply chain in the country. We produce huge surplus of milk every year, farmers end up having to throw it away because of EU regulation, so there's no reason why we should have a shortage of butter.

The actual explanation is rather more boring: almost all butter in France is sold to supermarkets, who negotiate prices once a year. If world market prices are higher, dairy products sell elsewhere instead and French supermarkets run dry.

https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21730877-forget-about-...

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

#83

Post by kercker »

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.

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.

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

#84

Post by kaoD »

mc32 wrote: post #4

The salient part was that it takes five acres per swine. They only have two hinds each... And they can only raise them in two areas of Spain. Seems production is pretty constrained by resources (in this case land with oak trees). That combined with 48-mo curing makes it hard to scale up. And we used to complain about almond production consuming too many resources (water) per output...

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 (loin, ribs, etc.) EDIT: except muslim countries of course.

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

#85

Post by djKianoosh »

kaoD wrote: post #84
mc32 wrote: post #4

The salient part was that it takes five acres per swine. They only have two hinds each... And they can only raise them in two areas of Spain. Seems production is pretty constrained by resources (in this case land with oak trees). That combined with 48-mo curing makes it hard to scale up. And we used to complain about almond production consuming too many resources (water) per output...

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…

;) even muslims enjoy pork. not every one of the millions of muslims worldwide is devout and follows all the rules ;) there's definitely niche markets in muslim countries

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

#86

Post by dep_b »

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 don't know why you say that. I think Jamon Iberico is rated higher than Italian hams, but perhaps that's just an exception. The types Italian wines and food that are popular abroad might be more diverse compared to Spanish.

I'm always amazed by the quality, price and diversity of the food in Spain. One of the reasons I like skiing there.

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

#87

Post by mseebach »

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

Oh, but they do. This goes a lot beyond simple geographical "truth in advertising", and is indeed a lot more similar to a trademark. As you mention, it's not enough for a wine to be produced in the region of Champagne to be allowed to be called Champagne, it has to be produced within very narrow parameters. Jamon Iberico is indeed protected, and again, there's quite a bit more going into this than ham produced on the Iberian peninsula. It's more pronounced with feta cheese, which does not have a geography in the name, yet have to be made in particular areas of Greece.

This is not to say this is bad, trademarks are generally a good thing, but let's not pretend there aren't strong protection-motives at play.

(As an aside, the process also sometimes backfires and inhibits innovation as in the case of "super-Tuscans", some fantastic wines produced in Tuscany, but not qualifying under the Chianti protection, and instead was released as table wine, ie. the lowest classification, while Chianti had languished as a profoundly mediocre product.)

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

#88

Post by VSpike »

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.

My Greek colleagues say the same about Greece, and having visited our Athens office a few times, I agree with them! Greek olive oil, cheese, and wine easily rival anything from Italy, but people (in the UK at least) tend to know the big Italian brands. According to my colleague, the finest chocolates are made with Greek almonds too, but they are not known as a product in themselves.

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

#89

Post by kaoD »

djKianoosh wrote: post #85
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…

;) even muslims enjoy pork. not every one of the millions of muslims worldwide is devout and follows all the rules ;) there's definitely niche markets in muslim countries

I know! I said traditionally.
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