Over 30 representatives from the Irish food and drink sector joined the Government trade mission to Japan and South Korea this week. Businesses included, ABP, Aurivo and Dawn Meats.

Ireland currently exports 177t of beef to Japan, which is made up of mainly beef tongue, but is yet to gain official access for beef to the South Korean market.

Japan is well recognised as a market influencer in Asia and with the upcoming Japan-EU trade deal set to come into force next year and substantially reduce food and drink tariffs, Irish businesses are keen to be the first EU country to take advantage of the opportunities in one of the most valuable Asian markets.

Japan imports up to 700,000t of beef a year and demand for cheese, particularly cheddar, is growing. South Korea is the sixth-biggest beef importer in the world.

Progress

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed was keen to progress Ireland’s cause for access to the South Korean beef market this week and met with his South Korean counterpart in Seoul on 17 November.

“It was useful to receive a direct appraisal from Minister Ryu on the progress of our application for market access for Irish beef.

“A number of stages remain to be cleared of the multi-phase process before market access can be secured.

“While Minister Ryu was reluctant to provide a definitive time frame for the completion of our application, he did indicate that it may be possible to move to the next phase of the process before the end of the year.

“I also took the opportunity to communicate to the minister our intention to initiate applications for poultry and sheepmeat access.”

Asian access

Creed has already confirmed this week that his request for Irish sheepmeat access to the Japanese market was turned down due to traceability issues around electronic tagging.

The lack of a time frame for approval to the South Korean market will be disappointing to many farmers.

However, establishing trade links in any Asian country takes a notoriously long time and the assurance from South Korea that the approval process will continue to progress, albeit slowly, should be seen as a success.

Ireland has had two out of five visits from South Korean officials and so far reports have stated that the officials were pleased with the standard of Irish abbatoirs and food safety procedures.

“This has been a positive week for Irish agri food ambitions in the region. Over five days, I’ve met four senior ministers in two major economies, been in the boardrooms of five multi-billion euro companies and attended 13 separate promotional events attended by over 400 Japanese and Korean buyers.

“More importantly, the travelling delegation from industry has indicated that the mission has been a success in terms of their efforts to build links in this marketplace,” Minister Creed said.

It is hoped that this trade deal will have helped to establish a toehold for Ireland in both markets in preparation for reduced tariffs in the EU-Japan trade deal and when Ireland gains access to the South Korean beef market.

Read more

Kerrygold butter to go on sale in South Korea

No Irish sheepmeat in Japan without electronic tagging