The first contracts with China worth a total of over €500,000 were confirmed recently following Bord Bia’s Marketplace Event, according to the event’s project manager Tara McCarthy, director of consumer food and beverages at Bord Bia.
The first contracts with China worth a total of over €500,000 were confirmed recently following Bord Bia’s Marketplace Event, according to the event’s project manager Tara McCarthy, director of consumer food and beverages at Bord Bia.
It’s estimated that most of this amount is with one account in the meat sector. “A survey of around 80 of those who participated in Marketplace shows that 100pc expect to write business as a result. That is adrenalin speaking; we would expect this to translate to about 50pc in 12 months time,” she says.
This would represent an increase from 40pc from the 2010 event. McCarthy expects the conversion rates to be higher because of an increased emphasis on the training Bord Bia provided, particularly to smaller companies.
“Back in September, we carried out training on market selection and then directly targeted buyers from the most preferred markets. We also did a full training day on logistics and how to make a pitch in eight minutes,” she says.
“There are a number of indications that people who might have been in discussions before the event last week now have definite leads with UK retailers.”
When Marketplace started in 2004 there were 176 buyers. This increased to 380 in 2010 and this year there were 520 – with 120 from Ireland, 100 from the UK and the rest from continental Europe, South Africa, Asia and the US.
“With fish there is much more of a bias towards Russia and Asia, while the top markets for prepared foods are Ireland, the UK and continental Europe,” McCarthy notes.
Source: Business and Leadership – Marketplace Results in €500k in Orders from China
