20/09/2021
1,800 tons of Spanish chorizo. It is the amount that arrived abroad this first semester to places such as Vietnam, Romania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Lebanon and Kenya, 4% more than the previous year, from the hand of the Spanish Chorizo Consortium, a group that brings together to 22 Spanish companies that are dedicated to the production of this genre.
In total, so far this year they have exported 35,300 tons of sausages worth 228.7 million euros, 12% more than during the same period of the previous year, of which approximately 75% is chorizo. In turn, in 2020, the year of the pandemic, the Consortium exported 65% more than in 2019, in line with the export vocation with which it was born.
The Consortium is a union of medium-sized Spanish chorizo producing companies that seeks to “publicize the product and give it protection under a quality mark, which in this case is the Consortium seal, which involves a series of audits and requires a series of compliance controls with specific terms ”, explains Alejandro Álvarez Canal, managing director of the Consortium, in conversation with El Independiente media.
“As well as defending ourselves from other chorizo substitutes that were marketed in international markets, the seal seeks to give security to the international consumer and to give them tools so that they can consume a product 100% produced in Spain ”, he insists. The Consortium’s data has not stopped growing since it was created: it labeled 3,669 tons in all of 2020 and 2,217 in 2019, from the 847 from which it started in 2016.
The group assures that the chorizos that bear its seal have been manufactured entirely in the national territory, “including the paprika and the rest of the spices must be originally from Spain.” “It is verified that all the raw materials are Spanish”, Álvarez emphasizes, which is then used to promote the chorizo abroad as 100% Spanish, with all kinds of actions, such as advertising inserts, renowned chefs or in butcher schools.
54 countries
In 2020, their chorizos reached 54 countries. The Consortium depends mainly on the European market, on countries such as the United Kingdom (1,105 tons exported so far this year, 5% more than the previous year), France (256 tons, 16% less) and Germany (80 tons) . Behind these European powers are Canada, Colombia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland and Finland.
Other destinations with a large volume of purchases also stand out such as New Zealand, and other more exotic such as Vietnam, USA, Morocco (for their hotels, restaurants and cafes, aimed at expatriates or international tourists, since Islamic law prohibits it) or those previously cited: Vietnam, Romania, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Lebanon and Kenya.
The United States has once again assumed a destination for this 100% Spanish chorizo, at the end of the “trade war” of the Trump Administration that represented a barrier to its commercialization, since the United States imposed restrictions on Spanish agri-food products. Oil and wine, for example, were particularly affected, but now, the entry of Joe Biden to the Government has given a break to Spanish chorizo companies, which have been able to export to this country again.
The fear of Brexit
What Spanish chorizo exporting companies that are part of the Consortium now fear most is Brexit. From 1 October there will be “greater zeal” on the part of the British authorities, explains the spokesman, since the United Kingdom will demand an extra requirement.
And although the 22 partners of the Consortium are used to dealing with these demands since its members are, from its origin and before the group existed, “highly internationalized companies”, 60% of the chorizo that the group of companies labels ends in the British country, so any inconvenience could lead to a major mismatch.
“We are a little concerned by the British authorities … it is the beginning of the implementation of this measure and there could be some slowdown in time,” Álvarez says. Now export meat products that arrive in the United Kingdom require a health certificate that is issued at origin and that was not required before. It is a procedure that is carried out in Spain and that is transferred to third countries. Currently, 2% of the chorizo it labels is destined for the national market.