Irish dairy co-op Ornua has set itself a hugely ambitious target of hitting €2bn in sales of Kerrygold butter by 2025.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal this week, Ornua CEO John Jordan said the Kerrygold brand is an incredible asset to the Irish dairy industry and there are huge growth ambitions for it.

“It took us 50 years to get to €1bn in sales of Kerrygold last year. We hope to get to €2bn in sales of Kerrygold within the next five years,” said Jordan.

Despite the disruption created by COVID-19, Jordan said Ornua has had a good year to date and is still seeing strong retail demand for Kerrygold.

US tariffs

Even in the US, where President Donald Trump introduced a 25% tariff on imports of Irish butter, sales of Kerrygold butter are still holding up quite strong.

Jordan said sales have benefitted from COVID-19 as US consumers were forced to buy more food from supermarkets than normal.

“If COVID-19 hadn’t come along, the tariffs would have done their job, which was to tamper with sales of imported goods into the US,” said Jordan.

“We’re obviously keen to see which way the November election goes. If the Democrats win, you’d hope to see a repair in the trade relationship [with the EU] and that those tariffs would disappear through 2021. But if the Republicans win, those tariffs are here to stay and probably ramping up over the next four years,” he added.