The United States confirms itself as a strategic market for Italian cured meats, even more so now that the lost sales in Russia need to be compensated for due to the ban. The final numbers of 2013 for Italian export to the United States, the major country of export outside the EU, was circa 6,330 tons (+7.4%) worth 73.5 million Euros. The first half of 2014 registered a +21.1% gain in quantity and a +19.7% gain in value at 34.9 million Euros. The potential is still high however. Only by the liberalisation of regulations for short-cured products, which is still waiting to be implemented, can the Italian companies achieve sales of 18 million Euros a year. More opportunity can also be created thanks to changing trends in American consumers, which at the moment favour the Italian sounding brands, the so-called second generation. As an analysis of Mra reveals, in recent years the USA market has grown stably by an annual rate of 2%. The market for off-the-shelf chilled, sliced and non-sliced specialty cured meats is estimated at 2 billion dollars. The Mra analysis shows that “there is resultingly a very strong link evident between the category of cured meat and how our country is perceived by the US market. This has given and continues to give access to both imitation products and Italian sounding products which are related to traditional US brands but also to a new generation of specialty cured meats. These market quotas can be achieved by our brands, on the condition that the best of our produce be exported once the liberalisation has taken place. In recent years USA producers have brought new brands to the maket, both in the salami sector (Olli, Creminelli, FraMani), and the sliced prosciutto sector (such as La Quercia), which enjoy a perceived high quality. The American ham, la Quercia, is priced on a similar level to Prosciutto di Parma Dop“. As far as the distribution of the product is concerned, which is already permitted, there is significant difference in the coverage between the North East area of the country and the trend setting retailers located in the Midwest. In the case of sliced prosciutto and the other chilled sliced meat specialties, the market leader in the specialty sector is Citterio. The mainstream sector is dominated by three producers (Oscar Mayer, Hillshire Farm and Hormel) which account for half of the market alone. The private label represents a marginal portion of this sector. As far as salamis are concerned, the market leader in this high-end sector is Olli. In particular, the claims insist on the “humane” treatment of the pigs and on the absence of the administration of antibiotics and hormones. Furthermore, the brands with a higher perceived quality emphasise the fact that neither nitrites nor nitrates are used in their production processes.
