Innovation centre targets growth in dairy and cheese exports
With the fine details on public/private investment split still open for debate, joint founders the Irish Dairy Board (IDB) and Teagasc have driven ahead with formal opening of their new innovation centre.
Having agreed a strategy 12 months ago, the two partners already had several tasty new cheese products available for sampling at yesterday’s launch. The plan is to spend the next four years developing a range of new cheese, powdered milk and other dairy products ready for the export boom promised by the 2015 post-quota era.
When it comes to choosing an umbrella brand for the new dairy products, it is hard to look beyond Kerrygold. The IDB’s sales were up 6% in 2010 to €1.9bn. Most of this growth was driven by record sales of Kerrygold, with branded sales up by 18% in value and 7% in volume.
IDB chief executive Kevin Lane said: “Our mixed fat spread product Kerrygold Extra enjoyed €25m in annualised sales in Germany in 2010. That was its first year, and it achieved those sales from a standing start. While it is only available in Germany, that product might well enjoy similar success in the USA and other markets, though maybe with another name, for instance Kerrygold Spreadable in the USA.
“This new innovation centre will be measured by the number of new products it develops, by profit and by the volume of revenues we can generate. The increased milk supply due in 2015 could be viewed as a challenge or as a problem. I would appeal to all the dairy leaders here in Teagasc today to see it as an opportunity.”
Mr Lane said the new innovation centre had a critical role to play in transforming the expanded dairy output into exportable value-added consumer products. This point was echoed by Professor Paul Ross, Teagasc head of food programme.
Prof Ross said that cheese accounted for 30% of all Irish milk utilisation during 2010. Cheddar exports have grown, but so too have non-cheddar products, infant formula and a range of health and nutrition-focused dairy products.
Since 2000, FIRM has invested €6m in over 30 Teagasc cheese projects. Teagasc’s new partnership with UCC has also created 350 new dairy cultures, which will feed into the pool of options available to the new innovation centre, whose strong consumer focus should see a speedier trajectory from R&D to commercialisation, and a narrowing of focus onto more saleable products.
Prof Ross said: “With the food programme, we are here to provide a range of choices to our collaborators. We are providing a pipeline that will lead to new products that will sustain a profitable industry.
“We have four dimensions in food research, from basic research up to applied research, which become gradually less expensive as you move through each dimension. We mimic cheeses and try to develop them, and the IDB will give us the sensory quality assessment that we need.”
Teagasc director Gerry Boyle said that €16m had been invested in cheese research over the past 16 years, half of which came from industry partners and half from grants and aids.
Teagasc has worked with 300 food companies in that time.
Teagasc will continue to work on a client contract basis, but the new innovation centre will also provide a second template for future R&D relations with food companies.
Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said the Government was committed to supporting innovation in dairy science and in the Food Harvest 2020 dairy expansion goals.
He expressed confidence in Teagasc and the IDB’s ambitions to bring quality consumer products to new markets. However, he also cited the financial strictures within which the Government was trying to frame the forthcoming budget.
Mr Coveney said: “Politically, we must try to find the money and the courage to invest now in projects that will not come to fruition until a few years from now. But we will be trying to do that against a background of shrinking overall resources.”
IDB chairman Vincent Buckley said the dairy sector needed some immediate successes from this research. He said farmers would be producing more milk, and they will want to see that there is a market for this expanded output.
Kevin Lane said Teagasc was always the IDB’s preferred option when they decided to move into new product development 12 months ago.
He said he was confident that this innovation centre would help deliver new products and markets to capitalise on the Food Harvest 2020 report’s 50% expansion plans for the dairy sector.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
