90% of the wild boar meat hunted in Catalonia is exported to countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Holland or Germany, where this ungulate has a better reputation and, consequently, more demand.
However, the number of these mammals has not stopped growing in recent years and it is currently estimated that there are between 2000,000 and 250,000 specimens in Catalan territory. In Spain there are more than a million and in Europe, between 15 and 20 million. In the last hunting campaign, some 74,000 animals were captured in Catalonia.
Its overpopulation has resulted in more traffic accidents and more damage to agriculture in recent years. Added to this is the lack of generational change among the members of the hunting groups, a figure that “is not socially well regarded,” according to hunter Esteve Prunell.
With the aim of promoting the consumption of meat from this ungulate and at the same time helping to reduce its population, chefs, gourmets, hunters and companies specialized in the sale of game meats urged yesterday from the showcase of the Girona Gastronòmic Forum to recover the kitchen from this product, protein and very versatile.
With it you can make stews, fricandó, meatballs or even a xuixo, like the one made by Joan Roca, chef at El Celler de Can Roca. “We must recover the prestige of wild boar meat,” said the chef, who at the same time defended the idea of cooking at home again for human health and that of the planet.
Gourmet Toni Massanés and chef Marc Puig-Pey, from the Fundació Alícia, urged us to “lose the fear” of cooking this type of meat and to “demystify the idea that it is hard or complicated.” The Generalitat is working with the idea of introducing this product in school canteens.
Lantxaga, a family business born in 2011 in Navarra, and based in Fornells de la Selva (Girona) takes care of the entire wild boar cycle: from when it is killed by hunters to the cutting, packaging and sale of the meat. Juan Zandio confirms that more and more restaurants are interested in working with this meat, 95% of which they sell outside of Spain.
On the other hand, the Forum yesterday unveiled a new variety of apple, the Tutti, adapted to the high temperatures caused by climate change. Emerged after twenty years of testing by the Mas Badia Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA) and another New Zealand center, it will begin to be widely marketed next autumn.
Currently this red, crunchy, juicy and very sweet variety is sold only in a supermarket chain under the name Hot 84. In the last campaign, about 120,000 kilos were produced in Girona, a figure that is expected to double.
