Companies in Northern Ireland (NI) are working to enhance food system security, according to Scott Hanna and Colin Hassard of Invest Northern Ireland, NI's regional economic development agency.

Hassard, an international trade adviser at the body, said food system security is a “hot topic at the minute” and that Northern Ireland "really punches above its weight in that part of the world."

“We have the world’s leading research [in food system security] at Queens University and our [food] companies are taking that on board,” he said.

Hanna and Hassard spoke with the Irish Farmers Journal at Northern Ireland’s stand at Gulfood 2022 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Focused

Hanna, a senior business development manager with Invest Northern Ireland based in the Middle East, said: “There’s an awful lot of people who don’t talk enough about the secure [food] supply chain. It’s something the UAE is focused on in terms of food security.”

Hassard agreed that Northern Ireland’s credentials in the area are met with a “very receptive audience” in the UAE market and elsewhere.

Lakelands Dairies, Belfast-based Greenfields, retailers and agri-tech companies were also present at the NI stand at Gulfood 2022.

When asked what marketing pitch those companies from NI were using that might set them apart from colleagues in the republic, Scott Hanna said: “We’re all about quality of product, secure supply chain and the organic nature of the product as well.”

Technology

Hassard also said that Northern Ireland’s “tech companies” are providing solutions for food companies in the Middle East when it comes to food system security and management.

“It’s certainly a market that is growing and as with a lot of things in Northern Ireland, we have lots of opportunities to try take advantage of that here,” he said.

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