Irish shoppers buy local to save jobs and the planet

Three in every four Irish people seek to shop locally, support local jobs and reduce their retail carbon footprint

Ray Kelly, Ray Kelly, marketing director, Musgrave Retail Partners, with Brid O'Connell, CEO of Guaranteed Irish.

Consumers can help reduce carbon emissions and support employment in their communities by continuing to shop local, say Guaranteed Irish (GI) and SuperValu.

Retailer SuperValu partnered with GI, a non-profit business membership organisation, to promote June as Guaranteed Irish Food Month. The message encouraging shoppers to “shop sustainably, buy Irish and support local” struck a chord with a lot of people.

GI’s surveys found that 77% of Irish shoppers feel it is important both to buy locally and to buy sustainable products. In the past year, 76% of Irish people say they have recycled more, 69% say they have reduced their use of single use plastic and 68% say they have reduced waste in their household.

Bríd O’Connell, CEO of Guaranteed Irish, said: “This new research highlights Irish people’s commitment to reducing their carbon footprint and shop local. We are encouraging customers to continue to buy more Irish products, not only for the month of June, but all year round, so we can all play a part in contributing to a greener future, while supporting the local economy.

“SuperValu encourage their customers to choose sustainable, Irish products that support local food producers and local jobs 365 days of the year.” GI’s key message is that by buying Irish products, consumers are actively driving the multiplier effect and contributing to building sustainable communities - every €100 spent in the local economy is actually worth €500 to that same local economy.

Members of Guaranteed Irish include Dairygold, Flahavan’s, Applegreen, Clonakilty Black Pudding, Pat The Baker and Chivers, to name a few.

GI’s surveys have shown that 89% of people believe buying local helps the environment, while 58% of shoppers consider low food miles when doing their shopping.

Ray Kelly, marketing director, Musgrave Retail Partners, said: “We are at a point in history where action must be taken in order to ensure that we pass on a sustainable world to future generations. It is heartening to see the importance Irish people place on shopping in a sustainable way.

“At SuperValu, we have been investing time, resources, and finances into becoming a more sustainable business. We’ve operated a zero-food waste to landfill policy for over 15 years, we have recycling rates of 97% and over 90% of the plastic packaging for our own brand products is now recyclable.

“While we still have work to do in this area, another key focus of ours is in supporting and developing sustainable Irish producers. The survey findings prove that shoppers are making conscious decisions to shop sustainably and view Irish and local products as the most environmentally friendly.

“At SuperValu we are committed to providing our customers with more sustainable choices. We recently launched the Taste of Local initiative, which showcases hundreds of small Irish food and drink producers in stores across the country, while SuperValu’s Food Academy programme for early-stage food and drink producers supports 320 Irish food and drink producers, 52 weeks of the year.”