Alheira de Mirandela, one of Portugal’s most well-known and appreciated sausages, is going to be the star of a gastronomic festival in the Brazilian city of São Paulo in October.
The event’s date is still unknown, but Jorge Morais from Mirandela’s commercial association (ACM) says the first batch of 30,000 “alheiras” is ready to be shipped to Brazil.
Hopes are that the festival will be the stepping stone to start exporting the sausage to São Paulo. According to estimates, the city has around 7.5 million people of Portuguese-descent, “most of them with roots in the Trás-os-Montes region” and who would surely buy the sausages if they were sold locally.
Besides selling its most famous product abroad, Mirandela’s business association also wants to encourage people to “come and spend a weekend in Mirandela” and “not be able to leave without visiting an alheira factory and taking part in a tasting event”.
As Lusa news agency explains, ACM is the entity that manages Mirandela’s alheira industry, which is described as a “€30 million per year” business.
There are 12 large scale alheira producers who employ around 600 people.
Mirandela’s alheira is certified and can only be produced locally. It is sold mostly in Portugal, though it is exported to some European countries like France. It is also sold in small quantities to Macau and Angola.
Alheira de Mirandela is made with pork meat and poultry meat, wheat bread, olive oil, lard, salt and garlic.
