An Irish agri-food trade mission to a number of Asian countries is continuing as Minister for State for new market development Martin Heydon heads to Vietnam.
Minister Heydon picks up the baton from Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, who has now completed his leg of the mission, in which he visited Japan and Singapore.
Commenting on this latest part of the trade mission, Minister Heydon said: “I look forward to engaging in bilateral discussions with my Vietnamese government counterparts as we work to build on our existing markets and develop new opportunities for our sustainable food and drink offering.”
“I will also be working closely with Enterprise Ireland to promote our innovative agri-tech industry with commercial partners in the region.”
Reflecting on his own part in the trade mission, Minister McConalogue labelled it a success, saying there was a “wide-range” of engagement with key commercial stakeholders in the Japanese and Singaporean markets and their Irish suppliers.
“Japan, Singapore, and the wider southeast Asian region are really important markets with educated and informed consumers. The markets are focussed on securing high quality and safe food, a demand which matches the quality food produced on Irish family farms,” the minister said.
He added: “Ireland’s relationships in the region are going from strength to strength. This trade mission has confirmed that the Irish agri-food sector is very well placed to meet sophisticated needs of consumers in these markets.
“The quality and safety of our world-class food products are in high demand. Irish exporters have made significant gains in recent years in both these markets, developing relationships and reputations with key stakeholders. There continues to be significant opportunities for Irish business in these high value markets.”
During the course of the Singapore mission, wholesaler Musgrave signed a deal to supply 400 products from its SuperValu Own Brand range to Singapore’s premium grocery platform RedMart.
Commenting on this deal, Michael Murphy, the interim CEO of Bord Bia, said: “We’ve already had huge success on this leg of the trade mission, launching Irish beef and lamb in Singapore and we now welcome the news that Musgrave has a significant listing with this leading online grocery platform.”