(March 30, 2017) Prosciutto di Parma closes 2016 with a production of 8,700,000 hams, up 2.8% compared to 2015. Italy remains the biggest market with approximately 68% of the production absorbed while exports reach 2.757 million hams recording a 1.2% increase on an estimated turnover of 280 million Euros. Despite the continuing decline in consumption of meat and cold cuts in Italy, 2016 was a positive year for Prosciutto di Parma thanks to a found balance between supply and demand which has contributed on the one hand to a drastic reduction of inventories and the other to a significant recovery in sales prices to the retail sector. It also continues the excellent growth trend in international markets despite some shortages in the supply of the product and rising prices, a situation that has weighed particularly on sales of the tanked product, more price sensitive and more susceptible to promotional operations. For the first time in fact the pre-sliced Parma ham is kept unchanged abroad favoring therefore the entire product exports (with bone and boned), whose increase is in line with the results of previous years. "We have set ourselves a very ambitious goal - said Vittorio Capanna, president of the Consortium - which is to bring Prosciutto di Parma exports at an altitude of 3 million in the short term. The competition on the global market is undoubtedly a very complex challenge, and probably not within reach of all businesses, but as a sector we are encouraged by the excellent results obtained to date. Sufficent to say that only ten years ago we were under 2 million hams exported. All this leads us to persevere in the growth project that we have built. " (Red)

ABOUT / AREA DIVIDED DATA

Both the EU market (61% of exports) and third markets contributed in equal to the increase in 2016: 16,000 more pieces in each area. Looking at the detail of individual countries, the United States continue to grow (+ 7%), remaining the first foreign sales market with 623,000 hams exported, ahead of France (476,000, + 4.7%) and Germany (468,000, +3 %). A bit of suffering on the markets of Belgium, Canada, Japan and Russia, the latter due to a closing of imports of ham. Among the emerging markets, especially China and Brazil, where Prosciutto di Parma was launched in style by some retail chains.