AFP, Jabugo :
The aroma is so extraordinary it’s like “a punch in your mouth” says Luqi Wu, one of several Chinese businessmen standing in a cellar in southwestern Spain surrounded by thousands of hanging ham legs.
While he samples the product, three of his colleagues learn to cut the ham as finely as possible-a crucial detail that they will put into practice back in Shanghai at tasting events for their own customers.
The world’s top pork consumer, China has started getting a serious taste for Spain’s world-famous “jamon” which is sold there as a luxury product and is getting one over on its French and Italian competitors.
“At the beginning, customers were just looking for elegant products because they’re rich,” says Wu, a sales manager at Jiarui Fine Foods, a Chinese company that specialises in importing luxury gastronomy products.
“But more and more they want to learn more and educate themselves… to know why it’s so good and why it’s got such a high price.”
The Italians got into the Chinese market early on with their Parma ham.
But Spain soon caught up and is now leading sales of dry-cured ham in the Asian powerhouse, making 1.8 million euros ($2 million) in sales last year excluding Hong Kong, according to the French Federation of Pork Industries (FICT).
The aroma is so extraordinary it’s like “a punch in your mouth” says Luqi Wu, one of several Chinese businessmen standing in a cellar in southwestern Spain surrounded by thousands of hanging ham legs.
While he samples the product, three of his colleagues learn to cut the ham as finely as possible-a crucial detail that they will put into practice back in Shanghai at tasting events for their own customers.
The world’s top pork consumer, China has started getting a serious taste for Spain’s world-famous “jamon” which is sold there as a luxury product and is getting one over on its French and Italian competitors.
“At the beginning, customers were just looking for elegant products because they’re rich,” says Wu, a sales manager at Jiarui Fine Foods, a Chinese company that specialises in importing luxury gastronomy products.
“But more and more they want to learn more and educate themselves… to know why it’s so good and why it’s got such a high price.”
The Italians got into the Chinese market early on with their Parma ham.
But Spain soon caught up and is now leading sales of dry-cured ham in the Asian powerhouse, making 1.8 million euros ($2 million) in sales last year excluding Hong Kong, according to the French Federation of Pork Industries (FICT).
