Big focus on health drives interest in Origin Green

A soaring consumer focus on health and wellbeing has heightened global retailer interest in Origin Green, the single brand which Bord Bia is using to market the Irish food industry overseas.

A total of 356 food and drink manufacturers — accounting for 85% of Irish exports — have signed up to Origin Green’s charter of auditing energy, emissions, water, biodiversity and other sustainability measurements. Bord Bia rolled out its Origin Green progress report at yesterday’s fourth annual ‘Pathways for Growth’ seminar at the Michael Smurfit School of Business, Dublin.

Bord Bia chief executive, Aidan Cotter, said: “Ireland is unique in having a national sustainability programme. People like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Walmart and Nestle have all welcomed this initiative as a world first that others should follow.

“We are getting a sustainability commitment from right across the food supply chain. I have been very pleasantly surprised by how easily the whole country has gathered behind this. We are very much on track with the goals we set ourselves at our launch two years ago.”

Some 228 are at workshop and plan development phase; 128 plans have been submitted and 70 companies, accounting for 70% of all Irish exports, have had their sustainability plans accepted and become full members.

More than 43,500 beef farms, accounting for 90% of Ireland’s beef production, are full members of Origin Green, audited and carbon-footprinted on an 18 month cycle.

Details of almost 18,000 dairy enterprises, accounting for virtually all dairy farms in the country, have been submitted to Bord Bia by 25 dairy co-operatives and they are in the course of undergoing their first audit cycle. Bord Bia is currently carbon footprinting around 700 farms per week.

The Origin Green initiative is also seen as sitting well with the growing global focus on health, wellness and concerns over childhood obesity.

“Health and wellness is unarguably the single biggest long-term driver of change in the food industry and those who can leverage it effectively are those who will ultimately prevail in the marketplace,” said Aidan Cotter. “People today are living longer and recognise increasingly the link between diet and health. Yet at the same time, healthcare budgets everywhere are under pressure. Obesity and its link to diabetes and heart disease attracts growing attention from the media, from government and from health professionals, bringing the food industry into ever more focus, with solutions sought in food labelling and sugar and fat taxes.”

The seminar also featured a video in which Irish actress Saoirse Ronan promotes Origin Green. The process of developing the new brand began four years ago, Bord Bia engaged David Bell and Mary Shelman of Harvard Business School to work with the Irish food industry to develop a vision for the future of the sector.