Spanish ham extends Russian presence

It is just a year since the Russian company Jamoneria JSC opened its first shop in the city of St Petersburg, specialising, as the name would suggest, in premium quality Spanish ham or jamon​, but also selling quality cheeses and wines from Spain.

But such has been the popularity of the ham, produced by the company Encinar de Cabezon, that it is now available in more than 300 outlets across the country and Jamoneria JSC has more than doubled the number of its own stores-cum-tasting rooms.

"The substantial growth in the product's turnover is a result of getting on to the Moscow market and establishing long-term relations with regional dealers,"​ Jamoneria JSC's brand manager, Alexandra Kiseliova, told Cee-foodindustry.com​. "Currently, the jamon is sold in 11 Russian cities."​

But Igor Podlevskikh, the director general of Jamoneria JSC, refused to say which cities had been targeted, or why. "We do not intend to publicly disclose this marketing information until certain time in the future,"​ he said. "Anyone who is interested in a particular city can leave their contact information in our guest book [on the website​]and our regional manager will get back to them within 1-2 business days."​

Among the outlets which do sell the Encinar de Cabezon ham are the O.K. supermarket chain in St Petersburg, and Moscow-based supermarkets Sedmoi Kontinent, Perekrestok and Megacenter - Italia.

But the DO product is certainly not for everyone, given its premium price positioning. The jamon​ sells for RUR400-3200 (US$13-106) per kilogram - compared to Russian ham which costs a more modest RUR230-480 per kilo. The average monthly income in St Petersburg is $500.

But Podlevskikh believes that there is simply no comparison between the Spanish ham and its Russian counterpart, including even so-called Russian delicacies. "I would not even begin to compare 95 per cent of the so-called meat delicacies that are sold in Russia's grocery stores with jamon."​

But with such a high price, Russian consumers will need to feel they are buying something truly unique if sales are to continue to grow, a message which seems to be taking its time to get through.

According to Podlevskikh, the question he is most frequently asked is whether or not he intends to produce the jamon​ - to which the answer is always: "No, it is impossible to make jamon in Russia because it is always produced from Iberian pigs, which live only in Spain. The ham can technically be produced from pigs reared in any country, but the question then is whether it will be jamon or just plain ham."​

Ham from the Dehesa de Extremadura DO, which is the one to which Encinar de Cabezon belongs, is produced only from pigs reared mainly on acorns - the Extremadura region is widely planted with oak trees - and then takes between 20 and 30 months be salted, dried and cured.

Given that consumers in western Europe have yet to fully grasp the quality implications of traditionally produced denomination of origin products, which include not only ham, cheese and wine but also beer, other meat products and olive oils, it perhaps comes as no surprise that Russians appear to have difficulty understanding why the product is so expensive.

But this has clearly not stopped them getting a taste for the product. Hams from all of Spain's DOs are available there: Cecina de Leon, Guijuelo, Jamon de Huelva, Jamon de Teruel and Jamon de Trevelez. There are more than 80 registered producers of Dehesa de Extremadura products alone.

According to Podlevskikh, his company supplies between 50 and 75 per cent of all the Spanish jamon​ sold on the Russian market, although he declined to give the exact figure. He said that other companies importing Spanish DO ham included Spana, Iberika, Kampomos [the Russian arm of Spain's Campofrio meat group], Emere and Friko.

So far, however, Jamoneria JSC is the only company in Russia concentrating solely on Spanish DO products. It is the sole distributor of Encinar de Cabezon ham under the terms of a five-year agreement.