Trade missions to focus on construction

ENTERPRISE Ireland’s trade missions in 2012 will focus on the engineering and construction opportunities being created by soaring global demand for food.

Target markets for agri-machinery and construction growth will include the Middle East, Asia and the Asia-Pacific, notably New Zealand. The enterprise body is optimistic for the future prospects of Irish high-end engineering firms, who earned over €200 million in London Olympics projects.

Director of global business, Julie Sinnamon, said: “We are seeing a lot of growth for companies like Dairymaster, Keenans and McHales, particularly for people in the dairy sector. We have seen a lot of farm machinery growth in the last 15 months in the UK, New Zealand and Germany.

“Last week’s trade missions to Saudi Arabia and Qatar were great for PM Group and others. Ireland has built up a great reputation for its professionalism in developing food and pharmaceutical plants in Ireland. Now we are ready to further develop that reputation overseas.

“Over the last two decades, we have a attracted a lot of foreign investment and built quality high-tech plants for the likes of Abbott and Pfizer. With the demise of construction in Ireland, a lot of those companies are now looking to international markets. Many of them have been working in London and Germany in the last three years, now they are looking further afield.”

While Enterprise Ireland has yet to finalise its schedule of trade missions for early 2012, the growing global demand for food-related clean tech, refrigerated facilities is one clear target area.

At one 100-minute networking event in London last week, the enterprise body hosted 480 10-minute meetings between Irish and British construction sector firms. The near-field successes of Irish firms in England and Germany is about to mushroom in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere. And food growth will be a key driver.

PM Group was one of the big winners from last week’s trade mission to Saudi Arabia. It has over €360m worth of projects in the Gulf region. The engineering and architecture and project management firm has begun work on a €45m food complex for Halwani Bros, one of the Gulf’s oldest food manufacturing companies with major production plants in Jeddah and Egypt.