Bord Bia planning to treble beef exports into Germany by 2015

BORD BIA has launched a promotional campaign to more than treble its beef exports into Germany by 2015, a drive to capitalise on a doubling of sales there last year.

The food promotion body has set itself a German export target of 30,000 tonnes, or €150 million by 2015. In 2010, Ireland exported 9,600 tonnes of beef to Germany, valued at €45m. This figure is expected to reach 15,000 tonnes in 2011, a 50% increase on the previous year’s total.

Bord Bia unveiled its new campaign yesterday at Anuga, the world’s largest food and drink trade fair taking place in Cologne. Aimed at trade buyers and consumers alike, the plan seeks to build food industry awareness of Irish beef from 10% to 50% and facilitate substantial growth over the next three years.

Bord Bia chairman, Michael Carey, said: “This campaign marks a new phase in the continued repositioning of Irish beef in the European marketplace, which accounts for 98% of our total exports. The German market is the second largest beef importer within the EU after Italy, importing almost 400,000 tonnes a year, and our goal, in support of Food Harvest 2020 targets, is to assist industry build a premium position and treble its import share by 2015.”

Irish beef exports are expected to grow by 9% to more than €1.7 billion in 2011. The industry has been benefiting from an improved global balance between supply and demand, notwithstanding a tough consumer environment with consumption in EU markets coming under significant pressure.

Bord Bia chief executive, Aidan Cotter, added: “This latest initiative follows comprehensive consumer research in the German market and a highly encouraging performance by industry in expanding sales over the last 12 months. Four of the top five German retail groups, as well as leading steakhouses, now stock Irish beef, providing a major platform to further develop and widen, through targeted consumer promotion, its penetration of both the high-end retail and foodservice market.”

In February, Bord Bia undertook qualitative and quantitative consumer research in Germany, Netherlands and Italy to gain a better understanding of consumer attitudes to Irish beef and to establish a compelling marketing proposition. The research found Irish beef scored highest on taste and the German consumer associated it with two key identifiable features — place and culture. These findings have formed the basis of the new promotional campaign.

The consumer-facing elements of the campaign include the launch of a new website (www.irish-beef.de), print advertising across a number of national newspapers and targeted gourmet food magazines; in-store tastings and point of sale material starting with 75 supermarket promotions before Christmas.

In addition, a national foodservice campaign is planned with two influential steakhouses — Blockhouse and Maredo.

The campaign also includes national trade advertising; key trade journalists will visit Ireland to gain a first-hand experience and understanding of Irish beef and high-quality standards; the development of information packs to assist buyers and importers and also the establishment of a Chefs’ Irish Beef Club in Germany to generate further trade support and ambassadors for Irish beef.

Exploiting and underpinning Ireland’s green image, the trade campaign will also feature an ongoing communications programme around Bord Bia’s sustainability initiative for the beef industry. Over the past five months, Bord Bia has been rolling out its carbon footprint initiative across more than 7,000 Irish beef farms, with all 32,000 member farms in its Quality Assurance Scheme set to receive their first sustainability audit by the end of next year.