Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez ridiculed for gaffe about serving China’s Xi Jinping cheap ham

Leader mixes up prized jamon iberico with run-of-the-mill jamon serrano when speaking at livestock fair, prompting farmers to ‘educate’ Sanchez

As delicacy’s popularity grows internationally, especially in China, supplies of jamon iberico have not been able to keep pace with demand

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Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech next to Speaker of the Spanish Lower House, Ana Pastor (left), Spanish Queen Letizia (second right) and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (far right) during an official gala dinner at the Royal Palace in Madrid in November 2018. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 4:41am, 5 Oct 2019Updated: 8:52pm, 5 Oct 2019

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has confused jamon iberico, the prized Spanish ham, with run-of-the-mill jamon serrano in a gaffe on a par with a French politician referring to a fine burgundy as plonk.

Speaking at the centuries-old livestock fair in Zafra in Extremadura, western Spain, Sanchez left his audience open-mouthed when he told them “you can be sure that when the Chinese president visited Spain he would have been served a plate of jamon serrano from Extremadura”.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited Madrid last November.

Extremadura is the cradle of jamon iberico, a delicacy capable of throwing Spaniards of all political persuasions into a gastronomic swoon.

An inspector performs a quality control check on a leg of jamon iberico in Huelva, Spain, in November 2016. Photo: Chris Dwyer

The local farmers association said it had dispatched some to Madrid to educate Sanchez, lest he once again cast his swine before pearls.