Irish companies attend SIAL food show in China

Irish beef companies are hoping to follow their dairy and pigmeat counterparts into the Chinese market.

With the beef industry looking to follow dairy and pork into China in the near future, Bord Bia’s Origin Green stand featured a strong beef presence at the SIAL food show in China this week.

Chinese officials will undertake an assessment visit in September this year, after which we can await visits that are expected to lead to company approvals.

Irish companies in attendance included: ABP Ireland, AgraKepak International, Ashbourne Meat Processors, Dawn Meats Group, Dawn Pork & Bacon/Dawn International, Liffey Meats, Rosderra Irish Meats Group Ltd, Ornua and Glanbia Consumer Foods Ireland.

China is Ireland’s second largest market for dairy and pigmeat and sixth largest overall.

Renewable division of ABP wins award

Olleco, the renewable energy division of Larry Goodman’s ABP, has been awarded the waste category in this year’s Guardian Sustainable Business Awards.

Celebrating the success of the company’s new recycling centre, the award recognises the innovative biodiesel plant powered by the outputs of anaerobic digestion.

According to ABP, the organic recycling initiative “provides a circular solution to the problem of waste produced by the food manufacturing, catering and hospitality sector”.

Olleco collects and reuses the waste food and used cooking oils and fats from its 50,000 food industry customers.

Last chance to apply for innovation award

The deadline for entering the Innovation Awards at the National Ploughing Championships has been extended by one week, and will close on Friday 8 May at midnight. There has been huge interest again this year, with over 50 applicants entered.

The extension was granted based on a number of enquiries last week to enter the competition. The overall winner of the 2014 Innovation Arena Award was The Falcon Forwarder – the only Irish built forestry forwarder – created by Marcia Franklin, Oldcastle, Co Meath. Marcia said the support and advice given by Enterprise Ireland has helped to promote the brand across Europe. In particular, enquiries from the Nordic countries arrive on a weekly basis. Our machinery team will review it in the next month. Applications can be made on www.farmersjournal.ie

April tractor registrations down

Tractor registrations took an 18% drop in April, compared with April last year, according to the latest information from the FTMTA statistics service. The figures show that 184 new tractors were registered in the Republic of Ireland in April this year, compared with 225 in April 2014. The last months’ figure exactly equals that of April 2012, giving a year to date total of 963 new tractors, which 7% lower than the first four months of 2014.

Cork continues to dominate the new tractor registrations, followed by Tipperary, Wexford, Offaly and Galway. Larger tractors over 100hp dominate the market, with the most popular power band being between 100hp and 120hp, which accounted for 37% of all new tractors registered so far this year.