They're messing with Spain with Donald Trump by imposing tariffs on "made in Spain" ham in the US, when they have the entire Canary Islands tourism value chain putting up with four guys who came to the islands to do their mandatory military service during Franco's era, and with the mess of the Canary Islands Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF), they have the entire market protected at the expense of residents as well as tourists. Protecting Canarian companies that don't want competition brings paradoxes when it comes to purchasing for the head chefs of the hotels in the south of Gran Canaria and, by default, for the rest of us who are barely making ends meet due to inflation. But this is the administrative ordeal tolerated by the Director General of Competition of the European Commission, Olivier Guersent, since importers don't care: they apply surcharges and charge the final consumer for the bureaucratic excesses.
An analysis of logistics and tax costs by Maspalomas24H this March reveals a surprising fact: shipping a ham from Huelva to South Korea or Japan is cheaper than shipping it to Maspalomas, despite the vast differences in distance. Perhaps if it were North Korea, the cost to the Canary Islands would be tied. These are the paradoxes of this contraption that no one can understand and that should be dissolved or reset to adapt to the real economy.
With freight prices as of March 2025, the estimated cost for shipping to South Korea would be €1.120. These figures include freight charges, local duties and taxes specific to Korea, and ground transportation to a hotel, which represent a significant portion of the final cost. However, shipments to Asia typically benefit from economies of scale and optimized logistics infrastructure, which mitigate the impact of distance. Korean stevedores do not earn €8.800 net per month, as they do in Las Palmas.
The estimated cost of shipping the same product to Maspalomas (including the sum from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Meloneras) is between €720 and €770, excluding taxes. However, when including IGIC (Tax on International Sales), the range rises to €804,5. This increase, although proportionally lower than Asian taxes, is significant due to the added bureaucracy of the island regime, customs procedures, and logistics fees specific to the Canary Islands. The tourist who consumes ham in Maspalomas is the one who pays the wages of the poor stevedore in Las Palmas.
Although the raw figures seem to indicate that Maspalomas is a more economical option, the cost-per-kilometer analysis reveals the paradox: transporting the product from Huelva to Asia, more than 10.000 kilometers away, is competitively priced thanks to the optimization of international routes and fewer export tax restrictions. In contrast, the approximately 1.000 kilometers separating the port of Huelva from the kitchen of a hotel in Maspalomas or Meloneras face administrative and tax complications typical of the Canary Islands REF mess, which disproportionately increases the cost of shipping. This phenomenon highlights the need to rethink local tax and logistics systems in island territories like the Canary Islands, whose domestic market could benefit from regulatory simplification that fosters more competitive and efficient trade. Who would have thought that the luxury of ham could reveal one of the most intriguing paradoxes of logistics?
