When I meet someone in Shanghai, a typical conversation begins like this: Stranger: “Hi, where are you from?” Me: “I’m from Ireland.”

At this point, my new friend usually probes further - asking what I’m doing here, how long I’ve been in China and how come I can speak Chinese! I duly explain that I studied Chinese in Ireland and I work in Bord Bia’s Irish Food Hub promoting premium Irish food in the Chinese market. While I have been working with Bord Bia since 2012, I have been based in and around China for some five years.

It is an exciting time to be working for the industry here with exports to China having grown over 40% to reach €390 million in 2013. It is now Ireland’s sixth largest market, driven in particular by strong dairy and pork exports. It might be interesting to know that it is also Ireland’s second largest dairy and third largest pork market. Seafood and beverage exports are also growing solidly but from a lower base, while eventual access to the beef market will really broaden the industry’s presence here in the world's fastest growing market. Most Irish food exports to China and Hong Kong are ingredient based for further processing, so Chinese consumers would not be very familiar with Irish products per se. There are some exceptions to the rule, notably the Irish Dairy Board is doing a great job of keeping Kerrygold and Dubliner cheese on the supermarket shelves, while the Illuma infant formula range (produced by Wyeth) is very popular with Chinese mothers.

With the Chinese New Year upon us, this time the Year of the Horse, the spring festival serves as a great reminder of Chinese consumers’ love of food. Fish is served on Chinese New Year’s Eve as the word for fish sounds like ‘surplus’ - hence the festive blessing ‘nian nian you yu’ or ‘may you have a surplus (fish) all year’. In addition to being an auspicious time for our Chinese friends, the ringing in of the Year of the Horse also heralds good tidings for Irish food exports, particularly as Bord Bia will be launching a number of online promotions featuring dairy products, Dublin Bay prawns, brown crab, salmon and boarfish - a new species in the Chinese market - aimed at China’s 650 million online consumers.

In such a dynamic market, there is no ‘typical day’ at the office. Yesterday, I was meeting executives from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to develop our upcoming online promotion of Irish food; today, I was working on a photoshoot with a celebrity chef developing boarfish recipes for the Chinese market; and tomorrow, I will be looking at cold storage facilities for Dublin Bay prawns. As long as the hardworking Irish farmers, fishermen and food manufacturers keep producing top-class food for export, we will be kept busy.

*Nick McIlroy is currently on the Bord Bia Marketing Fellowship in Shanghai. The Bord Bia Marketing Fellowship is a one year fully funded MSc programme..