Artisan producers to stir up business appetites at fair

Artisan food and drink producers will join caterers and food retail service companies to pitch their wares at this year’s Shop trade exhibitions at the RDS Simmonscourt, from Sept 25 to 27.

An easyFairs.com event which is free to food industry visitors, Shop promises to showcase the best in food and drink products, catering equipment, retail systems, and other food industry services.

Bullseye Food Marketing, one of the exhibitors, has been helping to prepare Cork businesses for the show.

Managing director Conor Hyde said: “There are nearly 5,000 people employed in full and part-time positions in the artisan and speciality food sector in approximately 400 small businesses. If this sector is nurtured it’s predicted that artisan and speciality food businesses could provide 7,500 new jobs and an additional €4.1bn to the local economy over the next eight years, which is phenomenal.”

For Kinsale Gourmet and 25 other artisan producers at this year’s event, Shop represents an opport-unity for retail and hospit-ality buyers to uncover high-quality and innovative products and to meet with artisan producers from across Ireland.

Assisted by Cork County Enterprise Board, Kinsale Gourmet is attending the show for the first time. The company was established earlier this year by Owen O’Brien and offers a range of frozen premium quality healthy food using ingredients from West Cork.

Kinsale Gourmet has built up a solid customer base of select retailers but Shop is the company’s opportunity to showcase itself on a national platform and to help secure presence for its products across the country.

The company’s head of sales and marketing, Miriam Crowley, said: “Uniquely, Kinsale Gourmet is the first Irish business to incorporate the use of local seaweed ... and we’re hoping that the high quality and distinctive nature of our products will be discovered by retailers from across Ireland.”

Along with 11 companies from Co Cork, artisan producers from Cavan, Clare, Kerry, Limerick, Meath, and Tipperary will be also be present.