by Emmanuelle MICHEL
The sun is shining as Salvador Pereira Menaut’s pigs trot between the oak trees in search of acorns — but he does not look happy.
Sales of premium “pata negra” dry-cured hams, the “caviar” of Spanish charcuterie, have suffered as restaurants and hotels have closed and celebratory eventswhere it is usually eaten have been put on ice because of the pandemic.
And that has pushed down the value of the hams made by Navarretinto, the company Pereira runs, as well as the 13,000 Iberico pigs raised each year in the sparsely populated region of Extremadura in southwestern Spain.
“We had managed to carve out a place for ourselves in the best restaurants and hotels i…
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