Last year, agri-food exports reached a record €11bn – 40% more than five years ago. But with the clouds of Brexit, Trump, low oil prices and a slowing Chinese economy hanging over the industry, along with farm incomes on the floor, it is hard to understand how anyone could describe being CEO of Bord Bia as their dream job. Yet for this she says her love affair with Irish food was there from the beginning.

With 20 years under her belt at Bord Bia, the Cork native has plenty of experience when dealing with challenges. She built her career at the coalface in German and French markets dealing with customers around challenges such as BSE. More recently, her 18-month stint with BIM allowed her understand the role of CEO.

And that’s a unique role at Bord Bia as the strategy was already written by stakeholders with her job to now implement it.

Stakeholders

Her first two months in the job have been busy, but one of the main tasks was to meet with stakeholders – the board members, farm organisations, meat companies and processors – to establish if this was still the right strategy for the industry, especially given the challenges of Brexit and Trump.

She believes the strategy is as relevant today as it was pre-Brexit: “The plan must be based on what the consumer wants and focus then on the infrastructure and talent we need.”

Hitting €19bn

In 2015, the industry called out that it had an ambition for a step change. At the time it said it can do more and the Food Wise 2025 target was set at €19bn.

As an industry target, Bord Bia’s role is to help achieve this, according to McCarthy. She is not calling for the target to be changed.

“People can get distracted with the target, but to me it’s about identifying the roadblocks along with the opportunities and how can we work these through with Government, industry and the rest of the semi-state structure to achieve that target.”

While agreeing that value-based targets are crude, she also doesn’t believe the target should move to a volume-based one. She says we risk losing the value-added piece and product could be dumped on commodity markets at any price to hit a volume target.

Sustainable exports

In contrast to US President Donald Trump’s beliefs around sustainability, McCarthy says that “from a customer’s perspective, sustainability has never been more important”.

This means she is backing Origin Green but realises it needs to evolve.

She says sustainability has moved on from the days of Fair Trade or recycling cardboard.

“This is about how you run your business and who you choose to do business with,” according to McCarthy. She says companies such as McDonald’s, Tesco or Nestlé are making commitments around sustainability which affect their procurement strategies.

However, farmers don’t often see or feel the benefits of the additional paperwork, and inspections.

She is clear: “If we want to be the supplier of last resort, feeding the bottom of the market, then we don’t need any scheme. We just take any price that is going and sell the commodity.

“However, if we want to position ourselves, as a sustainable premium food supplier to any potential customer, we need the systems to prove that. It allows us sell the product.”

Economic sustainability

But with farmers’ incomes under pressure, what about economic sustainability?

“The farmer is our story and if they are not making money, there is no industry. There is no one losing sight of how important farmers are. If farming isn’t seen as a viable career, talent leaves, and it becomes unsustainable.”

She adds that attracting people to be good farmers is as important as attracting people to be good marketers.

In relation to the recent food scare in Brazil, she says you can never be too smug about someone else having a food scare. “All you can do is ensure there is a respect for the quality assurance scheme. There must be no incentive to do the wrong thing. We are not checking to bring someone down. We are checking to protect the whole industry.”

Fussier food buyers

McCarthy says food buyers such as supermarkets are looking for one thing today – partnership. She adds clearly price is still there, but they want to do things together. Companies are looking for deeper consumer insights and are taking a longer-term approach to business.

But will UK buyers head to Brazil to get their beef in the future? She doesn’t believe so. “Look at what our key customers have been saying to date. For example, Tesco, has a publicly stated strategy to buy Irish and UK beef. You would have to imagine it would be very hard for them to move away from this.”

McCarthy says Bord Bia has to give them every reason to stay – to make that decision to leave ever harder for them. But despite all the investment in marketing, Irish beef fails to achieve a price premium like British beef in the UK. This is down to economics, according to McCarthy.

She says that if a product is at a 60% or 70% deficit in its home market, such as beef in Britain, is compared with a product that is in oversupply, such as beef in Ireland, the laws of supply and demand dictate parity is going to be a challenge. She says Board Bia’s objective is to get the maximum positioning for Irish beef and to be close as possible to British beef.

Resourcing

Given the growth trajectory and the challenges ahead, many believe Bord Bia needs more resources. The farmer levy which amounts to €6m of a total €60m income has been constant for almost 20 years. Industry and Government have been funding greater amounts.

Yet McCarthy is not asking for more money. She says its about being focused. We are not trying to be all things to all people. We need discipline to pick and prioritise the best projects and have the depth behind us to deliver on what we are investing in.

She says the job is about putting the right infrastructure in place and getting the right insights on the markets.

Preparing for Brexit

At the very outset, McCarthy says: “We should do everything we can to defend our UK position.” She adds that we need to understand our competitors – who they are, whether they UK- or EU-based, what is their approach and how are they going to behave.

She says the second part is to look at the continental EU market and what is the opportunity to build our presence further.

The next part is building the international piece. She says trade missions are key and are about building opportunities for business.

She added that sometimes it’s not just about euro exports, but can be about future-proofing ourselves, and the businesses that sell their products there.

For example, Almarai works with 30 different Irish suppliers. We need to ensure that we understand what their future needs will be.