Building Ireland’s identity as a food producer outside of the EU can be challenging. Many international buyers would struggle to find Ireland on a map, let alone have an understanding of our farming systems.
One avenue to assist in putting Ireland on the global map as a food producer, is through EU co-funded campaigns. These are campaigns for which the EU provides between 70% to 80% of the funding to allow member states to promote their produce.
EU co-funded campaigns play a vital role in Bord Bia’s diversification strategy to increase the global reach of Irish food and drink exports.
Operating under an EU umbrella allows Ireland to leverage the reputation of the EU, while simultaneously building the awareness and reputation of Irish food production systems.
Bord Bia, supported by the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM), has pitched for these EU contracts in recent years, and has been successful in winning funding of €29.8 million between 2018 – 2025.
New EU campaigns
Last month, the European Commission confirmed that Bord Bia has been successful in their bid for EU funding for two new campaigns to promote organic beef and lamb, and mushrooms. The combined value of the two campaigns is €5.7 million over three years.
The organic beef and lamb campaign will invest €2.7 million (including VAT) in promoting organic beef and lamb in Austria, Belgium, Germany and Sweden, while the mushroom campaign will see €3 million (including VAT) allocated to promoting mushrooms across the UK.
In 2024, in addition to these two campaigns, Bord Bia will run a further five EU co-funded campaigns: three of which will operate across Ireland, the UK, and Europe, covering fresh produce campaigns for potatoes, fruit, vegetables and mushrooms.
A further two campaigns see dairy promoted in Asia, and a beef and lamb campaign across Asia and the USA.
Philippines and Malaysia launches
The European Dairy – Ireland, working with nature campaign, promotes dairy from Ireland in five Asian markets: Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.
The campaign aims to target 10,000 buyers over three years (2022-2024). In June, Bord Bia hosted 19 dairy buyers from South East Asia as part of the campaign, with buyers visiting Irish farms and processors to see our sustainable farming systems first-hand.
Beef and lamb campaign
Bord Bia is promoting beef and lamb from Ireland across four markets, in a campaign valued at €4.8 million over three years. ‘Working with Nature – European Beef and Lamb’ is running in China, Japan, South Korea and the US.
Lamb in Japan – supported by EU campaign
Last June, Bord Bia welcomed five professionals from the Japanese meat industry to Ireland, as part of the EU beef and lamb campaign. Bord Bia continues to build relationships with these buyers, with several attending a Bord Bia trade seminar for Irish lamb held in Tokyo, this October.
Ryoichi Hiyoshi of HIT corporation, was one of the participants on the trips and received his first shipment of Irish lamb into Japan this September.
Speaking at the seminar Mr Hiyoshi said: “Ireland is known as a master of grass-based farming. The meat is characterised by its flavour and tenderness, which is most apparent through taste. This is a defining feature of Irish lamb.”
Irish lamb in Japan has seen an increased demand since initially gaining market access in 2019. Following a challenging market during Covid-19, increased efforts to spark trade relations has now seen a growing interest at trade level.
While lamb still is still seen as a less common choice for Japanese consumers, consumption has increased in recent years, with lamb slowly becoming a regular staple on supermarket shelves. Japan imports circa 15,000t of sheep meat annually.
This represents a modest, but important opportunity for Irish suppliers, as another option in addition to traditional markets in Europe.
To visit Bord Bia’s website, please click here.
