World famous Ibérico ham is being threatened by climate change as Spain suffers from drought

Drought within the Spanish area of Extremadura is placing the manufacturing of Ibérico ham in danger.

The world-famous dry-cured ham is constituted of blackfoot pigs which eat acorns in oak and cork tree groves.

However excessive temperatures and an absence of water within the final yr have triggered acorn manufacturing to drop by 20 to 25 per cent. The pigs are taking longer to succeed in their very best weight, delaying the manufacturing of the Ibérico ham.

How are Iberian pigs being impacted by local weather change?

‘La Monetanera’ is the fattening interval for Iberian pigs. They spend time in pastures the place they graze and eat acorns, placing on a substantial quantity of weight in two to 3 months. It occurs from roughly October to March and after this, they’re slaughtered.

“Clearly the manufacturing of grass and acorns has been a lot much less this yr” explains Rodrigo Cárdeno Sánchez, the proprietor of a farm in Badajoz, Extremadura.

“We’re speaking about an animal that ought to begin October weighing 90 kilograms and finish January at roughly 150 or 140 kilograms.”

The Interprofessional Affiliation of the Iberian Pig (ASICI) says that this ‘montanera’, between 15 and 20 per cent fewer acorn-fed pigs will likely be slaughtered in comparison with the 2021-22 season.

This equates to round 150,000 animals which means that inside 4 years Ibérico ham could also be extra scarce and costly.

Producing Ibérico ham is turning into much less worthwhile

Emilio Muñoz, supervisor of cured meat firm Ilunion Ibéricos de Azuaga, says they’re 2,000 to three,000 fewer pigs this season.

“We now have minimize 15-20 per cent of what we had deliberate. Expenditure has reached the identical stage as earnings and it is a catastrophe.”

Some farmers have already elevated the quantity of land they’re utilizing or slashed the variety of pigs they should alleviate the issue.

However each of those choices cut back their profitability – one thing that has already been affected by a rise in manufacturing prices.

Consultants say it gained’t be simple for the business to recuperate as a result of lengthy and costly life cycle of the Iberian pig.