MADRID – Spanish Chorizo, the famous spicy hard sausage with the characteristic red colour, is becoming increasingly popular worldwide.
European export is increasing, and has a number of important growth markets. However, there is also demand for the Spanish sausage outside of Europe. The Consorcio del Chorizo Español provides the sausage with a recognisable label.
At the end of 2020, 3,669,866 kilos of chorizo received the ‘Spanish chorizo’ seal from the Consorcio del Chorizo Español. The upward trend continued and in the first quarter of 2021 over 935,000 kilos of chorizo received the label. This is 19.75% more than in the same period of 2020. The monthly record was broken in March when 368,484 kg were labelled.
Foreign sales grow and exports to the US resume
The main export markets remain the UK, France and Germany, which account for more than 80% of labelled sausages. Important customers outside Europe are Canada and Colombia. Sales to the US have also resumed, after no chorizo was sold by the consortium in the year 2020.
Abroad, there is clearly a growth trend in sales of hard sausages, to which chorizo belongs. In the first quarter of 2021, there was an increase of about 10%. The total export value was around €105million.
Strongest growth
Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are the foreign markets that showed the strongest growth. Meanwhile sales to Portugal and the United Kingdom suffered the most. Furthermore, special mention must be made of the Czech Republic, where imports of the sausages rose sharply (+44%). Its labelling even increased by more than 1,400%. Finally, the market share of Chorizo del Consorcio in the hard sausage sector in the first quarter of 2021 was 7.63%. This is up from 6.97% in the same period in 2020.
In conclusion the importance of the label of the Spanish Consortium in the hard sausage sector is increasing.
