Bord Bia launch lamb promotion
As two French teams contested the European Cup final in Dublin, the Food Board was in Paris promoting the quality of Irish lamb to French consumers.
The venue for the campaign launch by Food Minister Noel Treacy was the French Rugby Federation’s new €46 million National Centre of Rugby, which President Jacques Chirac recently opened.
Irish lamb was centre stage at the complex, south of Paris, as Bord Bia hosted a reception for almost 200 French buyers and Irish exporters.
France is the single most important market for Irish sheepmeat. It took 33,000 tonnes valued €120 million last year. That accounted for more than 80% of total Irish sheepmeat exports for the entire year.
However, Irish exports to France in 2002 were 23% down on 2001 due to a smaller carryover of hoggets, a smaller lamb crop and increased retention of ewe lambs. Total French imports of 138,000 tonnes increased by 12%, but are still well below the pre-foot and mouth level of 169,000 tonnes.
Lamb imports from Britain last year increased by almost 22,000 tonnes, but were still 45% lower than in 2000. Both New Zealand and Spain continued to consolidate their upward trend.
Bord Bia will spend around €350,000 on the six weeks’ promotional campaign. In contrast, France will be spending up to €3 million in promoting its own sheepmeat. Six of the top French retailers covering more than 950 stores will be involved in the Bord Bia campaign.
Bord Bia manager in Paris Jim O’Toole said an evaluation of last year’s campaign showed that French consumers showed a preference for Irish lamb over all other imported product.
Laurence Fallon (IFA) called on farmers to be strong sellers of their scarce high-quality lamb and not to allow factories to drop the price unnecessarily at the request of French supermarkets. Dermot Moynihan (ICMSA) said producers would be at a huge loss if they did not have the French market for lambs.
