Iberian pig

Spain's official breed catalogue describes the Iberian pig as an indigenous breed descended from the wild boar, native to Spain and Portugal, and notes references older than the Romans to hams from "the dehesas of Iberia". Isolation between local herds produced many varieties, several now lost. The breed society AECERIBER lists Retinto, Entrepelado, Torbiscal, Lampiño and Manchado de Jabugo among those that survive, and runs a conservation programme for the four that the national catalogue classes as threatened.

The breed came close to collapse in the 1970s and 1980s, which the society links to rural depopulation and indiscriminate crossing with earlier-maturing breeds. Breeders founded AECERIBER on 2 October 1985, and a ministerial order of 28 May 1987 created the herd book, which the society still keeps. Numbers have since recovered and the breed has spread beyond its traditional area. Most pigs used by the industry today are Iberian crossed with Duroc and finished intensively; pure Iberians are fattened mainly in the montanera, the autumn and winter season of acorns and pasture.

Royal Decree 4/2014 sets the Spanish quality standard for Iberian meat, ham, shoulder and loin. Products are named by the pig's feeding ("de bellota" for pigs finished on acorns, grass and other natural dehesa resources without supplementary feed, "de cebo de campo" and "de cebo") and by its breed share. "100 % ibérico" requires both parents to be pure Iberian and entered in the herd book; 75 % and 50 % products come from pure Iberian sows crossed with Duroc or Duroc-cross boars. Each ham is sealed at the abattoir with a coloured tag: black for "de bellota 100 % ibérico", red for "de bellota ibérico", green for "de cebo de campo ibérico" and white for "de cebo ibérico".