Bord Bia today detailed its ongoing plans to showcase Irish food and drink to a global audience as the world prepares to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and everything Irish. Bord Bia is maximizing the opportunity, through its network of 13 overseas offices, to promote Irish food with a series of business development and consumer initiatives. From Stuttgart to Shanghai, Bord Bia has scheduled over 65 marketing activities aimed at consumers, retailers, trade and foodservice operators. Irish food and drink are currently enjoyed in 180 markets around the world and exports reached over €11 billion for the first time in 2016.
Tara McCarthy, Bord Bia’s Chief Executive emphasized the importance of the celebration of the Irish food industry stating, “St. Patrick’s Day provides the Irish food and drink industry and Bord Bia with a real business opportunity to highlight our export credentials on a scale unmatched by the national day of any other country. Now more than ever, in the context of Brexit, we are capitalizing on this opportunity to deliver key business development meetings, events, and campaigns that allow us to engage with new and existing customers. We will also be undertaking targeted retail promotions in some 400 stores from Japan to France over the period aimed at introducing overseas consumers to the taste of Irish food.”
Trade meetings, retail promotions tastings, media events, advertising and social media are just some of the other export building activities Bord Bia is undertaking across cities in over 20 countries. From Michelin star chefs to some of the biggest retailers in Europe, the business of Irish food will be to the forefront during this period.
The Business of Irish Beef to the Fore in Europe
Irish beef forms a focus for Bord Bia’s retail and consumer engagement across some key export markets. The German, French, UK and Dutch markets will all intensify their Irish beef marketing activities for the duration of the festive period targeting major retailers, shoppers, and media.
Importer Visit in Germany
This week saw Bord Bia launch a new consumer campaign worth nearly €1 million for Irish beef in Germany that will see Bord Bia partner with retail chains and restaurants. Irish beef continues to perform strongly in Germany with exports expected to reach 30,000 tons by 2018. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, was on hand to launch the timely campaign. As part of the Minister’s visit to Germany, a week-long program of trade activity is underway which included a meeting with foodservice operator, Niggemann Food Frischemarkt, a substantial importer of Irish beef, lamb, and dairy, to discuss upcoming promotions of Irish meat. Other activity consisted of a high-level meeting with the Hard Rock Café in Munich, a networking event in the Irish Embassy in Berlin for over 400 people as well as receptions in Stuttgart and Cologne where guests enjoyed Irish beef.
Irish Beef Launch in Germany
Nearly 130,000 people enjoyed a taste of Irish beef in Munich and London at the respective parades, both prominent markets for Irish product. The parade in Munich, the largest in Continental Europe, welcomed some 35,000 visitors while residents in the city were also able to enjoy Irish steaks in two of the largest Irish pubs. Closer to home, Bord Bia will be hosting an ‘Irish Street Food Market’ this weekend, as part of the Mayor’s St. Patrick’s Day Festival in London’s Trafalgar Square, serving an array of dishes to over 90,000 people.
In Ireland’s largest export market, the UK, Bord Bia has launched a comprehensive digital campaign for Irish beef, Beef Encounters, encompassing recipes, competitions and online advertising across key platforms such as BBC Good Food, Jamie Oliver, and The Guardian. Reaching some 3 million people, Irish beef is also taking over Great British Chefs, the UK’s fastest growing food and chef website, and this will see some of the UK’s leading chefs using Irish beef. In addition to the consumer-facing activities, Bord Bia will host key customers of Irish food such as Marks & Spencer’s and Sainsbury’s at the annual St. Patrick’s Festival Ball.
In France, Bord Bia has engaged a number of leading retailers to support it’s St. Patrick’s Day promotions. Bord Bia is coordinating an Irish beef promotion across some 140 Monoprix stores, a chain that purchases €4 million worth of Irish beef. Advertising material for Irish beef was also developed for Carrefour Market in the south of France and this activity amplifies on-going beef promotions in Metro, Europe’s largest Cash & Carry.
A targeted media program is also underway in France and Belgium. Some 20 food writers, trade media, and high-profile chefs will attend festive-themed events in local restaurants run by well-known chefs, who are part of Bord Bia’s Chefs’ Irish Beef Club, the international initiative for award-winning chefs who use and endorse Irish beef. In Belgium, Bord Bia will reach some 5 million people when prominent chefs are interviewed daily on a national radio station to discuss their love of Irish produce, while prime-time cooking slots on other channels will see Irish food and Bord Bia take center stage. In Paris, where chefs are stars in every sense of the word, Bord Bia will have the opportunity to demonstrate Irish beef to over 200 high-end chefs and food writers at an event in conjunction with Gault & Millau, a restaurant guide. Here Bord Bia will also present the “Trophée Terroir d’Exception” award to Maxime Laurenson, chef at the renowned Loiseau Rive Gauche restaurant, for his excellent showcasing of Irish beef. On the seafood side, Bord Bia supplied 900 customized seafood kits to wholesalers, retailers, and distributors across France. Bord Bia is also undertaking a program of cheese and whiskey tastings targeting Brittany and Paris wholesalers respectively.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Andrew Doyle supported Bord Bia’s efforts in the Netherlands, Ireland’s third largest market for beef, by partaking on a programme focused on Irish beef and meetings with key customers such as leading retailers, Jumbo and Albert Heijn, a company that purchases 20% of Ireland’s beef to the market, top wholesaler Sligro and the Hilton group, which had a throughput of over 9,000 tonnes of Irish beef last year. In this market, consumer awareness of Irish beef is second only to that of local beef. In addition, Bord Bia also hosted over 30 Irish beef customers and suppliers at a business dinner where Irish food and drink took pride of place on the menu while Michelin star chef, Gerrit Greveling, cooked Irish steak on a big green egg in the shadow of an iconic hotel in Zaandam which was ‘greened’ for the occasion.
Meanwhile, in southern Europe, Bord Bia’s office in Spain is running an Irish beef promotion with the country’s second biggest retail chain, Alcampo, while sampling and advertising have been arranged in Milan with the retailer, Carrefour, during the St. Patrick’s Day period. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charlie Flanagan, will travel to the city to join Bord Bia at Carrefour’s flagship store, which also sells a range of other Irish products such as Jameson Whiskey, Baileys, McGargle’s Craft Beer and Cheestrings.
Other International Activities from East to West
A range of Bord Bia organized promotional activities will also take place across other key markets including restaurant promotions in Sweden, whiskey tastings in Moscow, a cookery demonstration in Korea and a focus on Irish lamb in Denmark’s leading retailer, Coop.
Promotion in Korea
In Japan, Bord Bia is bringing a taste of Irish seafood to local consumers through an extensive sampling program with leading retail group, Aeon, in over 100 stores which aim to raise awareness about seafood from Ireland. Japan is an increasingly important destination for Irish seafood with exports there reaching €10 million in 2016 and demonstrating double digit growth year on year. Bord Bia’s team in China is hosting a media event to educate nearly 40 journalists about Bord Bia’s work in the region as well as to launch Musgrave’s new online store. Bord Bia also took part in Féile Shanghai Family Day Festival, Shanghai’s biggest celebration of Irish culture, promoting Irish food and seafood alongside Keogh’s, Kerrygold, Avonmore and Kerry Group.
In Poland, over 500 important guests enjoyed Irish food and drink at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Charity Ball in Warsaw while Bord Bia also hosted 10 award winning Polish chefs at a luncheon, some of whom have worked in some of Ireland’s top restaurants and are now looking to bring a taste of Ireland to their restaurants. Meanwhile, Bord Bia in Spain also hosted Minister of State for European Affairs, Dara Murphy, on a visit Mercamadrid, a significant Irish seafood customer and the biggest perishable food market in Europe. Bord Bia is supporting many events across the US from an Irish food showcase on a TV station in Atlanta to the provision of Irish food for St. Patrick’s Day business events. In addition, An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, will present a hamper of Irish food and drink products to the White House representing Ireland’s food exports to the US market.
Finally, Bord Bia has distributed samples of Irish salmon, farmhouse cheeses, and beef to embassies across all continents, from the Middle East to South America, to ensure that influential guests attending official St. Patrick’s Day events experience the best of Irish food and develop a taste for more.
