Report insists food firms need to work as partners rather than as competitors

IRISH food companies need to work together as partners and not as competitors, according to a new report published yesterday.

The study of the €24 billion-turnover Irish food and drink sector, which directly employs 150,000 people, was carried out for Bord Bia by Professor David Bell and Mary Shelman, Harvard Business School.

Pathways for Growth, launched at a Bord Bia Food and Drink Summit in Farmleigh House, Dublin, suggests that a single food chain, like beef, or dairy, seafood, or any other category, should work together as if it were one company in export markets.

The report lists key benefits of co-operating as improved efficiency through better co-ordination, higher and more consistent quality, joint problem-solving to satisfy customer needs, speed to market, and ultimately a higher margin.

Bord Bia chief executive Aidan Cotter said the report sets out a comprehensive agenda for change, based around three central themes of collaboration, innovation and branding.

These are accompanied by a set of detailed specific initiatives that, when implemented, would contribute to the achievement of the vision for a world-class food and drink industry.

“Simple as the three themes may appear, they have the capability, when executed in full over a three- to five-year period to be transformational in their effect”, he said.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith and 120 leaders of the country’s food and drink industries were present at the launch.

The report suggests that Ireland should adopt a strategy of developing a world-class agriculture industry by 2016. It should set itself the goal of becoming the most efficient, most highly innovative food and drink country in the world.

The report states that Ireland is at an enviable starting point in the race to produce exactly the type of food that a growing number of consumers are demanding.

It also calls for the creation of an umbrella brand for food and drink and the fostering of a climate of entrepreneurship.

The report identifies fragmentation and a lack of scale, limited consumer orientation in export markets, and low investment in the sector’s future as particular challenges the food industry needs to prioritise.

To counter these challenges, the report suggests that Irish exporters should be encouraged to collaborate rather than compete.