Wanted: 30 top students for Irish food industries

A search for 30 talented professionals to become future food and drink industry leaders was launched yesterday by Bord Bia and the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School.

Successful applicants will work beside leading Irish and international food, drink and horticultural brands in overseas markets while honing their strategic business development, marketing and business sustainability skills.

The Bord Bia Marketing Fellowship and Origin Green Ambassador programmes, run in conjunction with the Smurfit Graduate Business School, also serve to support the growth of the Irish food, drink and horticultural industry on a global scale.

Successful applicants on both programmes will have their tuition fees fully paid, in addition to receiving a bursary towards living expenses.

Padraig Brennan, director of markets at Bord Bia, said the future of the industry is reliant on continuing to drive growth of Irish food exports around the world while developing a thorough and robust strategy to address the challenge presented by climate change.

“Through these two programmes, we are able to identify and nurture some of the smartest, most energetic and ambitious individuals and equip them with the necessary skills in these key areas,” he said.

The 18 months Marketing Fellowship Programme (MSc International Marketing Practice) commences in June and is recruiting 20 individuals. It involves commercial assignments on behalf of Irish food, drink and horticultural companies in 12 key international markets.

The Origin Green Ambassador Programme (MSc Business Sustainability) commences in September and is recruiting 10 individuals for key placements with the world’s leading organisations.

A two-year programme, it allows participants to gain in-depth knowledge of the emerging issues in business sustainability.

Professor Damien McLoughlin, academic programme director at Smurfit Graduate Business School, said the aim is to recruit high potential, ambitious, motivated professionals with aspirations to become future leaders in the Irish food industry.

ABP Food Group also announced it has been selected as part of a winning pan-European consortium to lead ground- breaking food research.

The consortium includes 50 partners spanning market-leading businesses, technology innovators, best-in-class research institutions and consumer facing organisations.

It was chosen by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) following a selection process and will work to improve food production levels throughout the supply chain.

Over the next seven years, the partners will invest close to €1.2bn matched with up to €400m, financed by EIT, which aims to improve sustainable production of quality food. The project will set up four innovation programmes to target a number of important societal food challenges.