QVC, the biggest TV home shopping channel in the US, hopes to sell more than £7 million of Irish merchandise this year, which would make the channel the biggest single international buyer of Irish giftware and other consumer products.

The Irish Trade Board yesterday organised a customised trade show at the Riverside Centre, Dublin, at which a team of senior QVC buyers was shown products from 70 Irish companies which may be featured on the channel.

The Dublin show is part of a week-long exercise by the trade board and the channel aimed at identifying new companies suitable for TV home shopping sales. The products featured at the show included giftware, tabletop and household products, occasional furniture, gardening products, jewellery and health and beauty products.

The event was the first national product search undertaken by the channel and evolved from the promotional partnership developed between QVC and the trade board's New York office in recent years.