Zero unemployment for Spanish butchers
Spanish butcher and charcuterie sector has managed to keep the pace with the latest trends in the market and is responding fast to new technologies that simplify the operations in a butcher-shop. The development of the sector has created a continuous need for professionals and, as a result, there is no unemployment in this line of business. "Carnimad, handcrafted butcher’s association of Madrid, has worked in recent years to have a training center and reference for the meat sector, which has resulted in Educarne, the Center for Training, Innovation and Development for meat Sector that opened in February this year,", explains Maria Sanchez, General Director, Carnimad, in an interview for EuroMeat News. During Meat Attraction fair in Madrid, last week, Spanish butcher have proved their talent but also have presented fellows counterparts from different regions of the world such as Australian butcher Anthony Pucharich.
Most sectors of the meat industry complain about the lack of staff. How is the union of Spanish butchers from that point of view?
In the case of Spain and I want to emphasize this fact, in our industry, there is no unemployment. It is a sector where there is no unemployment and the demand for qualified professionals is continuous. Literally, the young people trained and experienced professionals are highly desired by butchers-delicatessens.
Aware of them, Carnimad, handcrafted butcher’s association of Madrid, has worked in recent years to have a training center and reference for the meat sector, which has resulted in Educarne, the Center for Training, Innovation and Development for meat Sector that opened in February this year.
We trust because we're working on it, that Educarne and training work carried out at the Center will be the germ of the future of the sector. We will form great qualified professionals, ready to be incorporated into butcheries and delicatessen, helping to build a pool of professionals who are part of the new generations of meat artisan sector.
Driven by this desire, during 2019, we launched two editions of the Certificate of Competence of butchery and meat processing, with a duration of 510 hours. The first, in which 13 students participated and which began on April 15, ended successfully last July, although this month they are still doing 80 hours of labour practices in companies.
Another fact that supports the goal of Educarne, is that when there are still three short months to the end of the year, 400 students have passed through our training center, which shows that we are an interesting place for many young people and our professionals that may have the clear purpose to further consolidate his business career. We invite you to visit our center on the second floor of the Mercado de Barceló in Madrid and meet our wide range of training in www.educarne.es
Training that enhances employability both workers in the sector and is also aimed at all stakeholders in some areas including trade in meat products, such as our training programs for apprentices butchery charcuterie and dual training through the contract for training and learning.
During the last decade, meat production in Spain has increased. Is that evolution helped butcher shops owners to develop and expand too?
Not necessarily raised in this way. I think increasingly, production, industry, distribution is more professionalized. I could not tell if that is the reason for an increase in production, but I think it is a result of social and economic evolution. All sectors became more “corporate” and this is also happening in the specialized area of meat butchery and charcuterie.
In this regard, the Interprofessional branches, INTERPORC, INTEROVIC, PROVACUNO, of which CEDECARNE (Spanish Confederation of Retail Meat) is a member, have done a great job in recent years towards promoting our meats and knowledge about its benefits.
The participation of these organizations in European campaigns promoting our meats, results more directly in the development of producers and industry, but also within them, it is doing important work in promoting the benefits of the meat and meat products, with performances that are having a direct impact on our domestic market, improving knowledge of the consumption of meat.
The constant change in consumer preferences regarding meat is rapidly changing trends in the market. What can you tell us about the latest trends emerging in Spain and how local butchers are keeping up with them?
It is clear: consumers and their buying habits and consumption are changing. The new consumer is looking for flexible and simple solutions that save time. And companies that want to continue to live with the new trends, will have to adapt to this requirement.
Time and convenience are today more relevant than ever and the products, therefore, have to adapt to city models and new forms of consumption and lifestyles that this imposes. Yes, the consumer is not willing to give up a loss of quality of the nutritional properties of food, so that new solutions must be associated with both the product and the process of purchasing and consumption, with tools and services make life easier and eliminate barriers to buying consumers.
In this sense, artisan butchery and delicatessen products are foods that can consumers clearly save time. In addition, we cannot forget that man has a hunter status and as such are attracted to exclusive products able to express their identity.
Another strategy being taken by the industry to be competitive is specialization. Many professionals have chosen counters with niche products to reach new consumers.
And if we talk about experience, it hastens to add that the specialist professional is who has direct contact with the consumer, and this makes it the prescriber for meat. A qualified counsellor. Therefore no one better than him, to advise on meat products, poultry, cheese, etc, from the knowledge, in order to maximize the shopping experience, and thus make it memorable.
Not for nothing, but we should not be so misguided when many business models are going to incorporate traditional formats in their ensigns.
Consumers are putting a lot of pressure when it comes to issues such as animal welfare, the safety of meat consumed or traceability. How difficult it is to meet these requirements?
Spanish livestock-meat sector is very committed to improving the environment and the safety and quality of its productions, being an international benchmark for his work on the sustainability of their products by improving processes, facilities and management and making significant innovations in waste management.
Even with the use of new technologies, they are developing production systems and new techniques with lower environmental impact, with the aim of progressively reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Examples of engagement, among others, are sectoral actions to reduce by 15% the carbon footprint for cattle, or reduction of a 47% ammonia emissions and 54% of methane in pig meat, with savings of up to 30% water use per kilo of meat produced and the promotion of sustainable production of rabbit meat.
These measures are not outside the specialized trade butcher-charcuterie, which among other things, implements rigorous self-control systems through the guides to good hygienic practices specific to the sector, with automatic control systems traceability based on new technologies, selecting suppliers with strict controls approval, is committed to reducing plastic with a firm commitment compostable materials and contributes to the reduction, elimination and recovery of meat by-products reducing its environmental impact.
And since a picture is worth a thousand words, butchers and delicatessen in Madrid have since 2010 its own Self-Control Agenda hygiene based in HACCP system. A working document put in place by Carnimad, to help professionals to implement the self-monitoring system in their establishments, based on good hygiene practices guides. In January next year, we will post its eleventh edition.
In this document, our membership collects on their pages records verifying hygiene plans, which are recorded and encompassed by day and week and whose purpose is the simplified control daily activity and strengthening of food safety culture.
Also committed to the environment, Carnimad aligned with the demands of our sector, and to help them to reduce sustained consumption of plastic bags, signed an agreement with Plastipapel, a dealer for compostable packaging so that our members could be involved with environmental policies for new packaging at a lower cost.
We are proud to affirm that specialized meat, reduced in our city, 50% the delivery of plastic bags, and there are establishments that have managed to eliminate 95% of plastic bags light, replacing other delivery formats, such as paper bags.
In short, the Spanish livestock-meat sector applies the model, the most demanding European production in the world in terms of quality, traceability, animal health, food safety, livestock welfare and environmental and social sustainability, ensuring that foods are put on the table comply with the highest standards of quality and traceability.
What is planned for the future in this field line and how modern technologies respond to the needs of a modern butcher?
The area of meat butchery and charcuterie specialized is no stranger to new technologies and innovation, the proof is the growing number of establishments that opt for these tools to improve their processes, not only in the manufacture of its products but also in the management of their establishments and thus adapt to changing consumer habits.
These technologies include the Big Data in which, through various applications and tools, can know the profile of their customers, schedules busiest and the average ticket, allowing them to develop sales activities tailored to their audience.
Also, automatic tracking control systems, integrated with elements of weighing (scales) allow them easily and ensure automated product information and even provide it directly to consumers.
Automatic payment machines are one of the most recently introduced elements that are enabling to improve efficiency in managing the company while helping to ensure food security avoiding manual handling of money. In short, with the butchers and delicatessens of Madrid, the meat and meat products are in the best hands.
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