One of the world's largest international food trade fairs, SIAL, is currently taking place in Paris, France, until Wednesday, (October 21).

The event is taking place at the sprawling Parc des Expositions in the city's northern suburbs, across several vast halls, each hosting different sectors.

In the meat hall, Ireland is one of dozens of countries with a stand. The Irish stand is under the auspices of Bord Bia, with several meat exporters having their own dedicated spaces on the stand.

The Irish stand saw good engagement on the opening day of the event (Saturday, October 17), according to Joe Burke, meat and livestock sector manager for Bord Bia.

Speaking to Agriland at SIAL, Burke noted that the event kicked off with larger crowds than are normally seen on the first day.

He said: "I would be really positive and enthusiastic at the start that there has been today; way bigger crowds than I have ever remembered seeing on the Saturday.

"Definitely off to a really strong start in terms of numbers, but also in terms of the quality of the engagement that we've had with customers," Burke added.

He noted a lot of potential meat buyers from France and Belgium expressing interest with Irish meat exporters on the stand, as well as from other European and international markets as well.

Burke said that SIAL provides the opportunity to speak with businesses "who previously were customers of Irish product and maybe have lapsed and gone away, and potentially hopefully speaking to a few of them about maybe getting them back."

In terms of changes in the meat sector internationally since 2024 (SIAL takes place every two years), the Bord Bia meat manager said: "It varies across the different sectors; certainly for beef we have seen a huge level of inflation over the last year to 18 months.

"There's been a big change since 2024 when we were last here in Paris at SIAL. Definitely, that is one of the big reflections or talking points among customers and their suppliers," he said.

For pigmeat, Burke said the sector is "quite challenged", noting a significant increase in supply from China, and "relatively strong supply and availability" of pigmeat within Europe.

He added, however, that there "still are opportunities".

"There are still certain markets there that represent reasonable, stable demand for Irish pigmeat," Burke said.

Back on the beef side of things, he noted that there was good interest from buyers in markets that do not traditionally import significant amounts of Irish beef.

Burke said: "We've spoken to a few buyers here even from Canada and from the US.

"So I suppose some of the geopolitical uncertainty is potentially even contributing towards some of those buyers coming over and having a look," he added.

"There's also a lot of conversations about offal items and about manufacturing beef and about trimmings and things like that," Burke said.

He added: "Even at the commodity end of the market, there is also a good lot of demand and a lot of conversations taking place."