Irish food and drink exports to China to grow 20% this year

IRISH food and drink exports to China are set to grow by almost 20% this year to more than €150 million, the Agricultural Science Association annual conference was told in Maynooth yesterday.

Bord Bia Asia manager in Shanghai, Breiffini Kennedy, told more than 200 agri-food industry delegates that China will play a vital role in the future growth of Ireland’s agri-food industry.

“This year’s big growth in Irish exports comes on top of a 12% growth in 2010,” he said. “Last year, Irish dairy exports to China exceeded €100m for the first time and our meat exports, primarily pork, grew by over 50%.

“Among the branded Irish products in retail outlets are Kerrygold butter, Dubliner cheese and Tayto,” he said.

Mr Kennedy said there are huge opportunities in China for infant formula, a sector where Ireland accounts for close on 20% of total world production, and there is also growing appetite in China for Irish seafood products.

He said economic growth of about 9% a year, growing urbanisation and a burgeoning middle class is transforming the eating habits of Chinese consumers.

“Today, almost half the Chinese population of 1.3 billion live in major cities and the proportion of urban dwellers continues to increase. Many of these are affluent consumers who can afford to purch-ase high-end luxury goods.

“The disposable income of China’s urban dwellers is more than three times that of their rural counterparts. Yet, food accounts for 32% of household expenditure of Chinese urban dwellers compared to around 10% for consumers in Ireland and the rest of the western world,” he said.

Mr Kennedy said that, within the next decade, China will be the largest economy in the world.

Consumer spending will continue to grow and it will increasingly rely on food imports to meet increasing demand and mitigate against inflationary pressures.