Huge potential Irish food industry

Food sources will need to increase by 50% by 2030, in response to the world's growing population and…

Food sources will need to increase by 50% by 2030, in response to the world's growing population and Ireland is preparing to meet this demand; driven by a doubling of the world’s middle class to well in excess of 3.2bn by 2020, major Irish companies like Kerry Group, Glanbia and Greencore are already gearing up plant and personnel to meet this soaring expansion.

“Last year’s record €10.5bn in exports follows five years of sustained growth by the sector, which is now well positioned as it seeks to expand towards its €19bn export goal set in Food Wise 2025,” said Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.

Ireland’s largest industry has an annual turnover of €25bn, exports of €10bn and 230,000 jobs. The sector supplies much of the country’s €14bn domestic grocery sector and is the UK’s largest supplier of food and drink.

A number of factors underpin this turnaround — not least the extraordinary rate of urbanisation continuing across the globe. A very large proportion of these potential new consumers now live in geographically concentrated markets across the world from growing EU conurbations to the teeming city hubs of Asia.

The new agri-food strategy, Food Wise 2025, has set out the ambitions of the sector for the decade, and predicts that Ireland can increase the value of exports by 85% to €19bn, push the value added to the sector by 70% to €13bn, and grow the value of primary production by 65% to €10bn.

The strategy builds upon the success of the current strategy, Food Harvest 2020, which has seen exports grow faster than any of the other main merchandise sectors since the economic crash began in 2008. Research by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, estimates that the agri-food sector contributes almost 40% of net foreign earnings from 19% of exports.

In terms of balance of international payments, every €100 of exports from the sector generated €52 in net foreign earnings. In contrast, exports from other sectors contributed only €19 in net foreign earnings for every €100 of exports.

A partnership recently signed between Bord Bia and SF Best, one of China’s leading e-commerce platforms for imported food will see a concentrated online promotion and sale of premium Irish food and drink over the next 12 months. SF Best operates 2,800 stores across China and, importantly for food exporters, its e-commerce business is recognised as a leader in fresh and frozen imported produce.

Online shopping for food is becoming an increasingly important part of Chinese consumers’ purchasing habits. In the first three months of 2015, the value of Chinese online shopping transactions exceeded €108bn, up 45% on the same period in 2013. Online sales of food are expected to continue growing at a rate of 50% annually, to a value of €280bn by 2025, with imported food expected to account for some 13% of this total value.

Ireland’s exports to China increased in value by 50% last year to reach €367m, and exports to Hong Kong increased by 24% to €180m.

Aiming to capitalise further on the established reputation of Irish food in the Middle East, Bord Bia participated at Gulfood Manufacturing Exhibition in Dubai for the first time.

The Middle East and North African markets have performed very well in recent years with Irish food and beverage exports to the region valued at €364m in 2014, an increase of 20% on the previous year.