Boost for small food firms

SMALL food companies operating in rural Ireland are to be boosted with funding of over €348,000 for training and development.

Comhar LEADER na hEireann, the Irish LEADER umbrella body, secured the funding for an initiative to be known as the Rural Food Company Training Network.

It will run until March 2008 and will focus on strengthening the strategic and technical skills of those working in rural food and food service businesses.

The funding has been granted through the Accel Programme, administered by Skillnets Services Limited on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Comhar LEADER chairman Tom O’Donnell described the funding as a great boost for food companies in rural Ireland.

“It must be remembered that these businesses are all in their infancy.

“Forty percent of them have been established in the past five years and can be very vulnerable.

“They are continually faced with rising operational costs and increasing trade pressures.

“This funding will give us the capacity to give support in training and mentoring at this vital stage,” he said.

Many of the newer businesses are farming family enterprises and include farmhouse cheese, value added meat production, vegetable growing and processing, and on-farm bakeries.

These micro enterprises are a significant contributor to rural employment, but bring with them many issues faced by newly-formed small businesses.

“This is where the support of the Rural Food Network will really help.

“Training will be provided in areas such as business planning, financial management, new product development and making the resources at hand work as efficiently as possible for the small food business,” he said.