Agriculture Minister Michael Creed concluded the Bord Bia trade mission in Hong Kong on Friday when it hosted an East Meats West, culinary competition and live event with some of Hong Kong’s leading chefs. The purpose of the event was to continue building awareness and understanding of the quality, safety and sustainability of Irish and European grass-fed beef and lamb, and is part of a three-year campaign co-funded by Bord Bia and the European Union.

On Thursday evening, over 3m Chinese consumers tuned in to watch Minister Creed and Tara McCarthy, CEO, Bord Bia chat with Yufeng Li, a high-profile Chinese blogger and online influencer. Bord Bia has appointed Yufeng Li to lead its new Origin Green digitally focussed dairy campaign in China. Use of social media and technology in China and Hong Kong is ahead of Europe and the smartphone is used for every aspect of life, particularly shopping.

Earlier on Friday there was an opportunity to visit Citysuper, an upmarket retailer that has four stores in Hong Kong. It offers a huge range of meat and dairy products from several countries. From Ireland there is Kerrygold butter, that is retailing at the equivalent of €8.31/250g pack and Kerrymaid lard selling at the equivalent of €2.27/kg for a 250g pack.

There were meat offers from Australia, the USA, South Korea and Scotland, as well as a range of infant formula, one example captured by the Irish Farmers Journal was produced in Askeaton, Co Limerick. We were informed that the big purchasers of this infant formula are in fact shoppers that come in from mainland China, as they in particular don’t have faith in domestic production. A 900g tin of infant formula was retailing as high as the equivalent of €59.