Thankfully in Britain we seem to be finally making our way out of the economic crisis which has blighted most of the world since the banking collapse of 2007/2008 (yes, it really was that long ago).

In Spain, however, the road to recovery has not been quite so smooth. Although the economy is now showing positive signs and unemployment figures are improving, with a slight fall from their 27% peak earlier this year, the effect on thousands of Spanish businesses has been catastrophic.

So where’s the good news?

The main benefit for us and for our customers is that quite a few Spanish food companies, with their businesses ailing in their home market, have started looking for customers outside of Spain.

When we first opened in 2006, there were only two serious wholesale suppliers of Spanish food products in the UK, with a fairly limited range of cured meat, tinned and dry goods. The growth in the popularity of Spanish cuisine, with the publicity of El Bulli as the world’s number one restaurant, led to an increase of variety, with a new supplier popping up every year or so, and the past 12 months have seen at least four new companies importing a range of delicacies previously not seen outside of Spain.

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned the wonderful variety of fish available in the central market of Jerez, where there are 40 independent stalls. The same goes for meat, where there are a variety of cuts that are traditional in Spain, but previously unavailable to us in the UK. So as an inadvertent result of Spain’s dire economic state and thanks to these new importers, we are now able source some of these delights.

Our customers at Los Gatos may have noticed some new faces over recent months. Enthusiastic, well-qualified young Spaniards, in the UK to improve their English and their chances of getting a job back home, where youth unemployment is over 50%. They do a lot to enhance the Spanish atmosphere and when combined with great new dishes… every cloud has a silver lining.