The breeders
A BREEDING ZONE: THE SOUTHWEST
The Bayonne Ham industry comprises nearly 740 pig farms, members of 19 pig producer groups.
Pigs destined for the production of Bayonne Ham are exclusively born and raised in farms in the Southwest of France, including the two administrative regions of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie.
Free-range breeding
Straw-bedded breeding
Conventional breeding
Conventional breeding
A FAIR REMUNERATION APPROACH FOR BREEDERS
The Bayonne Ham Consortium has established a fair trade approach with a profit-sharing scheme called the “breeder incentive.” This involves financial support from the ham producer to the Bayonne ham breeder, which aligns with the price of pork. Thus, the lower the price of pork, the higher the support for the breeder. The incentive ranges from 27.5 cents to 2.75 euros per ham.
Therefore, the three sectors (breeders/associations of Bayonne ham producers, slaughterhouses/cutting plants/feed manufacturers, and ham producers) that make up the Bayonne Ham Consortium benefit from the value created by the product sales.
Since 1998, when the Bayonne Ham PGI was obtained, over 57 million euros have been redistributed from the ham processing sector to the breeding sector.
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