Miguel Ángel Alvelo has dared to “beat them at their own game” by starting up a canned chorizo business, which pays tribute to his Galician ancestors and his father.
Twenty years ago, Miguel Ángel Alvelo, a Cuban, arrived in Spain for good. This in itself is not news, historically there has been strong emigration between the two countries, whose cultures and idiosyncrasies have so much in common. But today, two decades later, this Cuban is making history with the success of his venture in that country, a business based on one of the best-known products of Spanish cuisine: Galician chorizo.
Born in Camagüey, Miguel’s great-grandparents, from Galicia and Asturias, emigrated to the Caribbean island and settled in the center of the eastern province. In the 1950s, they opened a grocery store where they sold different products: Spanish wines and ciders, oils and, of course, chorizo. Miguel Ángel grew up in this environment of combined traditions. Later, his enterprising and curious nature saw him dare to launch his own brand of smoked and canned Galician chorizo.
Miguel studied water sports in Cuba, and many of his projects when he arrived in Spain in 2001 were linked to swimming. But one day, while visiting a supermarket, he couldn’t find a single can of chorizo in oil, and he said to himself: that can is going to be made by a Cuban. As a result, his brand Conservas Alvelo was born, a name that pays tribute to his father, his family, his ancestors.
“I am looking to place high quality chorizo, in the homemade style, as my grandparents used to make them, on the market. Smoked, in oil, canned, and with a luxury presentation to distribute them in Europe and Latin America, especially in Cuba,” he explains.
He tells us that nobody had ever thought of making this canned chorizo, until a Cuban came and did it. The advantage of this format is that besides being easier to transport and export, it has a shelf life of around four years. When people buy it, they are actually buying two products: the chorizo and the oil.
This entrepreneur leaves nothing to chance and takes care of even the smallest detail. The design of the brand and the suitcase where the two formats of chorizo cans are transported were made by Cubans. The suitcase symbolizes those Galician emigrants who back in the twentieth century left one day for Havana on the steamships leaving Spanish ports.
Many distributors have already shown interest in the product, but Miguel says he wants to take the first steps gradually: start selling in Spain, through parcel services, gourmet stores and travel agencies. In this way he hopes his product can reach Cuba by the hand of a traveler.
“Perhaps I can be the first Cuban entrepreneur abroad to take his product to Cuba.”
At 52 years old, Miguel doesn’t plan on stopping here. He is starting a YouTube channel where he wants to share with his customers and users recipes that can be made using Alvelo chorizo. He also tells us that more canned products are on the way, which currently do not exist in the world, as well as many other surprises.
He confesses that the key to his success is due, among other things, to the support network he has found in Galicia. “For a Cuban to start a business abroad you have to have many things: first, resources and second, good advice. If I had not had the advice of my wife Elena, I would not have been able to get to where I am today.
“The suitcase, besides the chorizo, carries with it my hope, the tribute to my family and the pride of my Galician and Asturian background.”
