Ham Passion Tour gets the first results after its first year

The Interprofessional Association of Iberian Pork (ASICI) has today granted a press conference in the framework of the Meat Sector Fair, Meat Attraction, organized jointly by IFEMA and the Meat Association of Spain (ANICE). During the meeting, ASICI analyzed the results of the first year of the European “Ham Passion Tour. The Ham, the passion of Europe ”and has revealed some of the news scheduled for this second year of it.

At breakfast with the press, the new president of the Interprofessional, Antonio Prieto, has highlighted the positive evolution of the Iberian in recent years and how the Traceability and Quality System of the Iberian sector, ÍTACA, which guarantees the Traceability of Iberian productions. According to Prieto, “the future of the sector is built on the quality, traceability, transparency and internationalization of Iberian products”.

The president of ASICI has opted to open a “stage of reflection within the sector to decide, in a cohesive way, what the strategic lines should be in which to work in the next ten years” and has denied that updates of certain aspects of the Quality Standard presented by the vast majority of ASICI organizations to the Ministry last year, are detrimental to the quality and traceability of the products that would originate with respect to those that have been produced since 2014. “The modifications, agreed upon and demanded by the great majority of the sector, seek to adapt the Iberian and its regulations to the current productive reality, in order to prolong the good moment we are going through ”.

For his part, the managing director of ASICI, Andrés Paredes, has highlighted the effort made by the operators of the sector, cattle ranchers, slaughterhouses and industries, recording daily in ITAC specific and specific information of their professional activity. “Thanks to them, the system has become a source of rigorous information that offers, in unthinkable terms just a few years ago, concrete and reliable information on the most important sectoral productive indicators, allowing operators and organizations to make better strategic decisions of the Iberian ”.

The evolution of some of these indicators shows us, for example, that since 2014 sacrifices have increased by more than 41%, to 3.7 million animals, being more than 5% in 2018.

With respect to the acorn pig slaughter in the different mountains, the evolution shows a total increase, compared to 2014-2015, of almost 27%. However, in the last montanera, 2018/2019, there was an almost 10% decrease in the total acorn pig slaughter compared to the previous montanera, with the reduction being almost 5% in 100% Iberian acorn, from 15 % in acorn-fed 50% Iberian and more than 11% in acorn-fed pigs 75% Iberian.

Paredes has highlighted the more than 60 million Iberian hams and shoulders that have been identified with Standard seals since the approval of the Royal Decree. Concerning only Iberian Hams, the percentages of pieces identified by categories have been:

8.3% BLACK seal
10.4% RED seal
18.8% GREEN seal
62.5% WHITE seal

The heads of the Interprofessional have highlighted the good reception that has had the revolutionary APP for mobile devices, Iberian, which collects the information of the 60 million seals. Thanks to the application, the consumer can check the traceability of Iberian Hams and Palettes based on the information registered in ITACA, and verify that the product complies with current regulations (RD 4/2014). In less tha

n a year, the application, free and interactive, has obtained 18,200 downloads with which users have made more than 130,000 seals readings.

Results that exceed all expectations
Finally, ASICI has shared the results of the first year of the Ham Passion Tour, which started with the objective of strengthening, consolidating and developing the positioning of the Iberian Hams of Spain in strategic international markets such as France, Germany, United Kingdom and Mexico, in addition from Spain. Only in 2018, the first year of the campaign, #HamPassionTour has managed to appear in 418 international media articles, have more than 2 million views of campaign videos or reach more than 10 million consumers with the various content published on networks social, for a total of more than 265 million impacts on potential consumers.

To increase and consolidate these figures, to the multiple promotional actions planned (Road Show, masterclass in the most prestigious hospitality schools in each country, tastings in restaurants and gourmet shops, press trips to production areas, outdoor advertising, campaign in magazines , promotional videos or digital campaign), have joined in the second or year workshops for press in Mexico City, Paris, Hamburg, London and Madrid, and sponsorships of cultural events of international projection, such as the San Sebastian Film Festival or the presence in the meat sector fair, Meat Attraction.

The “Ham Passion Tour. The Ham, the passion of Europe ”2018-2020, has been promoted by the Iberian Pork Interprofessional Association (ASICI) under the Iberian Ham brand of Spain, with the support of the EU and with a budget of almost 6 million euros.