Invest Northern Ireland

Bedford Square, Bedford Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland,BT2 7ES.

Tel: 02890 239090

The Northern Ireland Agri Food Sector
The Agri-Food sector in Northern Ireland is one of the most important contributors to the Northern Ireland economy in terms of revenue and employment and is Northern Ireland’s largest manufacturing industry. In 2009 the industry was worth £3.2billion and exports grew by an impressive 27% to £876million (2008).

Nearly two thirds of food and drink from Northern Ireland is now bought by retailers and food service organisations in other parts of the UK and increasingly further afield.
Buyers in virtually all the leading grocery retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons, now look regularly to Northern Ireland for a broad range of fresh, frozen, chilled and processed products, from fresh meat, dairy and bakery to ready meals, convenience foods. Niche products are also to be found in the food halls at Harrods, Fortnum and Mason, Liberty and Harvey Nichols.

Northern Ireland’s reputation as a source of quality foods is also spreading worldwide. Wal-Mart, Safeway, Carrefour, Auchan, SuperCor, Spinneys, Mercadona are among a growing list of international retailers shopping regularly in the region. Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn is a longstanding customer particularly for beef and lamb from Northern Ireland farms.

The region can point justifiably to a great many success stories – red meat being bought by Europe’s top retailers; cheese and tea going to the US; porridge oats to the Arabian Gulf and Hong Kong; dried fruit and nut snacks to Singapore, Dubai, the Netherlands and Switzerland; pork sausages, health foods and toasted oats to Spain; milk powder to China, Africa and Central America; coffee to the US, Saudi Arabia and North Africa; potato crisps to Australia; and dry cured bacon to Belgium.

About Invest NI (Northern Ireland Naturally)
Invest Northern Ireland, the region’s main economic development agency, has a dedicated Food Division which delivers fully integrated and responsive services to over 300 local food and drink companies including advice on account management, design, product development, packaging, supply chain and productivity.

Practical support schemes range from assistance to export through trade missions and exhibitions and ‘meet the buyer’ events with key buyers in both food retailing and food services to business development programmes including help to companies in achieving essential quality accreditations demanded by major retailers.

Among the most successful initiatives is the Food Sector Marketing Advisers scheme that is helping Northern Ireland companies increase business in GB and international markets.

Four Food Sector Marketing Advisers utilise market knowledge and their network of contacts to assist local companies pinpoint and secure new orders by brokering face-to-face interviews between the companies and food retailers including multiple chains and organisations supplying restaurants, hotels, cafes and canteens. They also
co-ordinate Invest NI’s programme of ‘meet the buyer’ events. These events have brought key buyers from Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, other parts of Europe, the US and India to Northern Ireland for one-to-one meetings with local food companies.

www.buynifood.com – Invest NI’s dedicated food and drink web site features over 200 Northern Ireland food and drink companies across a range of sectors including Baked Goods, Confectionery, Dairy, Dried Goods, Drink, Fish, Food Service Providers, Fresh Produce, Meat and Non Food.

Invest NI’s Food and Drink Sector Tendering Programme and alert service has been designed to encourage and assist local food and drink companies to compete more effectively for substantial public sector contracts in the RoI. As well as business in the Republic and Great Britain, the marketing initiative is now yielding orders from the US.
 

 
Ballyrashane Co-op
Ballyrashane Co-op was founded in 1896 & is Ireland’s oldest registered Farmers Co-operative Creamery still in operation. In addition to a range of own branded products, (dairy products including milk, cream, butter, buttermilk & Regato cheese), Ballyrashane Co-Op provides leading retailers with a range of retailer branded products e.g. Spar, Vivo, M&S. Cheese is exported on a world-wide basis.

Dale Farm is one of the UK’s leading dairy processors and part of the United Dairy Farmers Group, a leading UK dairy co-operative owned by 1900 member farmers who supply it with over 1 billion litres of milk per year. Dale Farm produces a wide portfolio of consumer products and food ingredients which are made across 5 manufacturing centres in the UK. The Company, who has won numerous awards for its products and sales, exports world wide to over 42 countries.

Within the UK & Ireland, Dale Farm supplies a wide range of cheese products into the retail and foodservice sectors under its own brands – Dale Farm, Dromona and Rowan Glen . The company also provides a broad range of retailer own brand products.

Fivemiletown Creamery is a small farmer owned cooperative based in the Clogher Valley on the County Tyrone / County Fermanagh border. The Fivemiletown range consists of a number of artisan speciality soft cheeses including Ballybrie, naturally smoked Ballyoak with its velvety texture and rich oaky aroma and Ballyblue, the first blue cheese to be developed in all of Ireland. Cooneen is a soft goats cheese brie and Fivemiletown produce a range of Cheddars too in a number of formats (sliced/grated/block). Boilie Goat’s Cheese filled with Pesto and Black Olive Tapenade were launched in July 21010 at the Nantwich International Cheese Show.

Around 95 per cent of the company’s premium products are now sold outside Northern Ireland and feature on the shelves of many of the world’s biggest food retailers.

Glanbia Cheese Ltd is the No.1 European supplier of pizza cheese solutions with unrivalled patented and proprietary technology. Established in the early 1980’s Glanbia’s customers include full service restaurants, home delivery/takeaway, retail deli-retail and contract catering. Glanbia’s joint venture with Leprino Foods Inc in 2000, has resulted in propriety technology transfer of significant capital investment within the company’s two UK production facilities. This has given Glanbia a unique position in Europe in terms of plant efficiencies, product consistency and new product development opportunities.
 

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