The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Ms Coughlan, yesterday launched a major beef sales initiative in Paris where Irish beef is back on French supermarket shelves for the first time in eight years.
Before her official visit to the giant SIAL (Salon international de l'Alimentation) food fair on the outskirts of the French capital, the Minister visited a Monoprix supermarket where branded Irish beef went on sale in a special promotion in the company's 11 Parisian stores.
She praised the work that had been undertaken by An Bord Bia, which has seen a steady rise in beef exports to France over the last four years, recovering from the dramatic collapse of the market because of BSE in 2000.
While exports recovered to 24,000 tonnes last year, they are still far below mid-1990s levels when Ireland exported over 70,000 tonnes of beef to the French annually.
Now, with the recovery of consumption back to pre-BSE levels and a deficit in French production, Ireland - the Minister said - should be well-placed to take advantage of the opportunities that would present themselves.
As Minister for Agriculture and Food, she said, it was her duty to come to support Bord Bia and the Irish exporters who had experienced very difficult years in the past in the drive to secure more business.
"The product is good and there is a deficit of beef here in the Union and especially in France and we are well-placed to take advantage of that," she said.
The Minister said that Ireland now had a very efficient beef-processing industry and, while there was serious competition from Latin America, given the quality product Ireland produced, we would be well able to compete.
The Minister said that the SIAL food fair was one of the premier food showcases in the world and gave Irish producers the opportunity to seek out new business in European and world markets.
Bord Bia's chief executive, Mr Aidan Cotter, said that since 1996 only French beef has been sold in the retail sector, but now with a beef deficit in France, retailers were looking to Ireland for extra supplies.
"The decision-making process to stock Irish beef had taken time but the progress to date is positive. French retailers are very satisfied with Ireland's quality and supply capacity," he said.
He said that French retailers had visited, audited and tested the Irish system at every level and were convinced about the high standard of products available.
However, while he was encouraged by current retailer interest in France, the full impact of the developments would not materialise until 2005 and beyond.
"Our goal is to establish Irish beef with the French retailers and to grow volumes in this sector in line with our overall strategy of increasing sales to premium outlets in continental Europe."
A major talking point at the show was the loss by Dungannon Meats in Co Tyrone of their £200 million meat contract with Sainsbury in the UK to a company controlled by Mr Larry Goodman.
Mr Goodman now supplies 60 per cent of the beef requirements of the British supermarket mainly through his UK operations. He has two meat factories and a chilling facility in the North.
