Parma Ham ended 2015 with a production of about 8,462,000 hams.
United Kingdom continues to be a very important market for Parma Ham, holding a 12.4% of the total exports, just below USA, Germany and France.
With a turnover of £ 27.8 million, the value of sales for Parma Ham producers in the UK is still very high.
In particular, the pre-sliced makes up 84.7% of the total sales; with almost 18,000,000 packages sold in 2015, UK is the first export market for pre-sliced Parma Ham.
Exports are developing at a constant rate: 2,724,813 hams with the crown were exported in 2015, with an increase of 3.9% (100,000 hams) on the previous year and an estimated turnover of 260 million euro.
Our export is very positive – comments Vittorio Capanna, president of the Parma Ham Consortium. The strategic choice to focus on a balanced development is proving to be a winner and, beyond the annual figure, it is the medium-long term analysis that highlights the particularly brilliant results achieved: over the last ten years exports have risen by 50% and now represent 32% of yearly production.
This is all the result of an excellent geographic diversification of the markets and an efficient team effort that the sector has been able to bring into play and that has enabled Parma Ham to become a leading brand on the international deli-meat scene.
The EU market saw an increase of 34,000 hams (+66,000 for Third Countries) and now accounts for 61% of exports, a share that is gradually decreasing each year to the advantage of Third Countries, which over the long term are showing a more marked growth.
The United States consolidated the brilliant results of the previous year and proved to be the leading foreign market with 582,000 hams (+3%); it is followed by France and Germany in second place (454,000) that saw a 4% and 2% growth respectively.
North and East European Countries continued to grow significantly, while for overseas countries we should mention the particularly brilliant results of Japan with 125,000 hams (+18%), Canada growing by 19%, and Australia (+13%). A positive result for China (+75%) where Parma Ham finally succeeded in exceeding ten thousand hams.
The only negative figure of 2015 was for Russia, where exports fell because of the import ban.
The pre-sliced product
With a share of 19% on production, Parma Ham in pre-sliced packs proved to be an important segment for the development of the entire sector. In 2015 there was a 6.3% increase with 79 million packs, which means 1,582,000 hams.
Italy is finally recovering and, after three consecutive years of decline, reversed the trend to achieve a comforting +7.3% with 18 million pre-sliced packs, taking sales volumes to the pre-crisis levels of 2010 and 2011.
Exports (+5.9%) also continued to grow significantly and represented the outlet for 75% of Parma Ham in pre-sliced packs: 57% went to the EU market and the remaining 18% reached consumers in Third Countries. All the main foreign markets were positive except for the United Kingdom where, after driving the development of the pre-sliced product for a long time, the market is experiencing a period of saturation.
The EU market saw a total increase of 5.1%, with an exceptional performance in the East Europe area where the increase came close to 70%.
Non-European markets such as the USA (+8.3%), Canada (+28.5%) and Australia (+43.4%) also did very well.
Parma Ham is a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product and is 100% natural. The drying process that Parma Ham goes through creates a ham that is very low in fat content, with many mineral salts, vitamins, antioxidants and easily digestible proteins. This means that Parma Ham is truly a food for everyone.
Prosciutto di Parma is produced in the hills surrounding the Italian town of Parma.
The unique taste of Parma Ham is dependent on the traditional production process passed down from Roman times, carefully controlled by the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma. Only hams that have passed stringent curing regulations approved by the EU can be awarded the stamp of the Ducal crown – a five pointed coronet logo with PARMA in the centre which is branded onto the ham’s skin. The Ducal Crown is now a certification trademark.
If you would like to receive more Prosciutto di Parma information or recipes, please visit www.prosciuttodiparma.com
Source: Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma
