Prosciutto di Parma: 6,750,000 hams in 2025

6,750,000¹ Prosciutti di Parma DOP were branded in 2025, worth €810¹ million at production and €1.6 billion at consumer prices, according to the consortium that protects the name.

6,750,000 hams, 126 producers

The 2025 count is of branded hams, the ones that received the mark, and they came from 126¹ producing companies.

You may meet a bigger number in the 2026 press: more than 7.1 million legs sealed in 2025. That's a different indicator from branded hams, so don't set one against the other or read the gap as a loss.

€810 million at production, €1.6 billion at the counter

The hams were worth €810¹ million at production in 2025 and €1.6 billion at consumer prices, with €315 million from exports.

All three numbers come from the Consorzio del Prosciutto di Parma, and it's the only source for them. We found no independent count to set beside it.

For scale inside the same region, Parmigiano Reggiano turned over €3.96² billion at consumer prices in 2025, well over twice the ham's figure.

A DOP since 1996

Prosciutto di Parma has been a DOP since 1996, the same year as Parmigiano Reggiano. Emilia-Romagna's third big name, Aceto Balsamico di Modena, followed as an IGP in 2009.

The zone, the minimum curing time and the rules on the pigs are set in the Parma specification, which isn't in our sources. That's why none of them appears on this page, and why the comparison below is lopsided.

San Daniele, the other DOP ham

Prosciutto di San Daniele DOP, also recognized in 1996, can only be made inside the 35 square kilometers of the comune of San Daniele del Friuli, at 252² meters, in the province of Udine.

Its rules allow Italian pork legs and sea salt, and nothing else, with at least 400³ days of curing. The trotter stays on, which gives the ham its guitar shape, and a whole leg weighs 12.5³ to 17.5 kg³.

The pigs can be raised and slaughtered in ten regions, from Friuli-Venezia Giulia down to Lazio, but the curing happens in one comune. Its consortium dates from 1961.

Telling them apart at the counter

One visual difference is documented: San Daniele's rules keep the trotter on. For Parma the equivalent detail sits in its own specification, which we haven't read.

So the reliable test is the name. Read it on the rind of a whole leg, or on the pack if the ham is pre-sliced, and don't rely on color or on the slicer's word.

For the region, see food in Emilia-Romagna and 5 days of Emilia food. For Friuli, see food in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

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