Beef buyers focusing on both extremes of the carcase value have told the Irish Farmers Journal they were looking to increase imports from Ireland. Joe Piperato of the speciality organic and grass-fed meat processor J&G Foods in the US already runs an Irish beef pilot programme with a supermarket chain in Massachussetts, where many consumers have Irish heritage.

Asked about the slow development of Irish beef exports to the US, he said: “The story has to get out, it’s a marketing endeavour – it’s not a product-related issue, the product is great.” He added that price was not an issue for his customers.

Radwan Fawaz of Ivory Coast-based protein foods importer SONAL said Irish offal was a growing category in his business. “We have to feed people with the maximum nutritional value at the minimum cost,” he said. He and traders serving the west African nation began to source hearts, lips, snouts and feet from Ireland just over one year ago and it has proved competitive with Brazil, the US and Poland, he added.

Marketplace event

The visitors met the Irish Farmers Journal during a visit of the ICBF’s progeny test centre in Kildare as part of this week’s marketplace event organised by Bord Bia.

The programme involves 550 buyers from 50 countries and involves tours of meat and dairy processing plants and research farms around the country before a matchmaking event with 185 Irish food companies in Dublin this Thursday.