Anton is a handsome black Iberian pig. He's the pride of La Alberca, a village in northwestern Spain, a medieval UNESCO World Heritage Site village perched in a natural park under the constant surveillance of rare eagles and black storks.

Anton is the latest chosen one in line for a centuries-old tradition called La Marrano de San Anton, or 'Saint Anthony's pig.' Each year around June 13th – the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua – a young pig wearing a bell is blessed and set loose to roam the medieval village streets.

Anton is allowed to wander freely through the village, being fed by locals and plumping up over summer and winter before being raffled off on January 17 for Saint Anthony's Day. The money raised from the raffle goes to a charity.

As Anton ambles through the half-timbered homes and granite lintels of La Alberca which keep centuries of secrets, he inevitably passes by Fermín Carnecería – a butcher’s shop opened in 1956 by husband and wife Fermin Martin and Victoriana Gomez.

They couldn't have dreamt that decades later their little butcher's would become a global success that brings in nearly $20 million a year and employs over 100 people.

"My mother and father opened a butcher shop right here on the ground floor of this house," says Paquita Martin, daughter of the founders who helps run the company with her brother Santiago.

"Both my parents came from humble beginnings – my father lost his mother at eight years of age."

From a village butcher to an international business

At an altitude of 1,000 metrsr, La Alberca's pure dry air creates the perfect conditions to cure Iberian ham, one of Spain’s favorite foods. Through hard work, commitment, and community, the family built a reputation for quality homemade premium products and in the 1990s opened up a factory that helped them begin to export to other countries.

Santiago Martin studied to become a doctor, but he tells CGTN that the only thing he cures now is ham.

"We saw exports as a big opportunity as no-one else was doing it," he says. So the business began exporting to the US and Japan – and became the first company to sell Iberian 'ham-on-the-bone' in the Chinese market.

According to the industry body Inerproc, "The pork sector is a strategic pillar of Spain's national economy, generating an annual industrial turnover of close to $30 billion, accounting for practically 10% of Spain's industrial GDP."

At the farm, Santiago Martin shows CGTN more of the famous Iberian black pigs, descendants of ancient wild boar. They roam freely and feed on acorns, doubling their weight in just a few months.

Acorn-fed ham – bellota in Spanish – is the pinnacle of all Iberian ham and a prized luxury food across the world... including, increasingly, in China.

Embutidos Fermin at the CIIE in China

Fermín Carnecería will be one of the 4,000-plus overseas exhibitors from 162 countries in Shanghai for the China International Import Expo (CIIE).

CIIE provides a giant shop window to the Chinese market for foreign companies and this year is in its 9th edition. A record 2025 show generated global deals worth close to $600 billion – and according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry, 2026 could be even bigger.

At Fermín Carnecería, they happily acknowledge that the CIIE is crucial to cracking the Chinese market.

"It's an excellent, professional, and hugely important event where you can find the exact type of clients you’re looking for," says Santiago Martin.

"We first went to CIIE in 2009, and have been back every year since. China is a giant global power where we see growth in the sales of our products and we believe that it’s a hugely important market for the future."

They will be there again this year, fostering ever-closer relationships with Chinese clients.

Meanwhile Anton still gets to roam free through La Alberca – and if he's lucky, he'll following in the trotter-steps of his last few predecessors... by being adopted by a nice local family as a pet.