In that house time marks absolutely everything. That of the clock and the calendar and the meteorological. Thus, every year is different and if one have pigs distributed by 20,000 hectares, another can be 40,000. And, since the ham is not manufactured, it is not easy to know how many hams the final production will be every year, because not all of the pigs Joselito will end up giving a Joselito ham although all are raised and controlled by themselves. In return, they do know exactly that their Iberian products are present in the best stores and restaurants in 56 countries. Its formula for quality is the sum of a breeding attached to the tradition of the past company that wants to last and persevere. That, in addition, they have received recognition from the Mapfre Foundation for the best agricultural initiative.
How do you get a family business to have a continuity of six generations?
José Gómez: It is surely very rare, yes. But in our case we have always tried in the 156 years we have been existing. We live very close to the winery, we were going there after school or on vacation and, little by little, it gets into your daily life and involves you. It is that it hooks.
How many people in the family are now involved in management?
JG-Seis. My father and uncle, plus two cousins, my brother and me.
How is it to manage such a veteran company and among relatives?
JG- Sometimes there are different points of view. It is good and normal and I have always seen it. Obviously, we are a traditional company, because our product is. But, if you want to last and persevere, you have to innovate, be international, etc.
How do you work to produce an exquisite ham?
JG – The first thing is to have a field, a maximum quality pasture. If not, it is impossible to make such a product. We have fields in Seville, Badajoz, Huelva and Cáceres mainly. From there, various issues such as climate enter, which is not the same in one place as in another. It also depends on the year; According to what time do and how to evolve, acorns, what pigs eat, are different. It is a bit like the harvest, which there is not always the same grapes in quantity or quality.
In addition to what they eat, do you also have to take care of where they eat it?
Beatriz Isabel.- It is basic. Dehesa is a symbiosis between human and nature, in fact. It is said that it is a agrosilva or pastoral ecosystem, forged by the positive interaction between plants, animals and humans and is something of the Mediterranean environment. It is something super -ours, which gives life as it is.
Have you planted half a million trees over 20 years?
True. The reforestation plans and the care of the holm oaks are part of the management. In fact, in Joselito there is a specific apartment with 32 people. Because it has nothing to do with an oak that is well cared for, which has a healthy glass, which is around 90 to 100 years to an oak that can be 20 years old. One produces 300 kilos of acorn and the other may not reach 60.
What more factors are important?
Bg- the soil and its management. We make regenerative grazing, with rotation of pastures, so as not to overload the soils and that the pastures recover naturally without chemical fertilizers.
The opposite of intensive livestock.
Completely. Like the night and day. We make natural, healthy and high quality products in a traditional way. That is the future and for what we bet on innovation projects.
For example.
BI- Forest management. The soil reforestation and management plan includes large areas of growing trees in which cattle does not paste. When the trees already allow it, these areas enter the rotation of pastures. In addition, we have learned that, as the weather has changed, we can no longer reforest between January and February as before, but we have to take advantage of the real biological stop of the trees and now reforest in December.
Do they also act in circular economy and digitalization?
Bi- In fact, we compost with the waste to improve the ground. Compost tea, specifically. That is: we enrich the compost with native microorganisms of our fields, add water, wool and even milk. Thus, liquid, can be applied much better and individually, especially in ancient trees.
JG- In digitalization, we have created a database, pigdata. All our pigs have chip, and in that base the information about each one is recorded: its family tree, what they eat, how much they move. All. This monitoring serves us to anticipate decisions, such as what will be the healing process, etc.
Who did they allude to develop these projects from your R&D?
We work with several universities: the Complutense, that of Salamanca and that of Oviedo; Also with the CSIC, with the CDTI and the Board of Extremadura, with a European Business Incubator Project. In addition, veterinary students do doctoral theses, thesis and master’s jobs with us. And we have a precious laboratory of bio fermers in Mérida.
All these projects increase knowledge in this sector, do you share it?
Bi- Yes. In fact, I think we are the only company that currently has five articles published in high-impact international scientific journals, with peer review, so that the community and society can benefit from our experience and our practices.
Present and future in an image
► They are the image of the two faces of Joselito: that of a family business with a tradition of 150 years as a producer of a protagonist in the right of Spanish gastronomy, the Iberian ham; and Joselito’s commitment to innovation throughout the entire value chain such as formula and guarantee to produce high quality and sustainable foods and for its continuity. To tell everything, the director and innovation coordinator speak together.