Trade mission to 'promote Ireland's reputation in agri-food' in South Korea and Japan
This week, a major Irish agri-food trade mission is taking place in the Republic of Korea and Japan.
Led by minister of agriculture, Martin Heydon, in collaboration with Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland, the trade mission will include two ministerial meetings and visits to three cities, including two markets, two trade receptions, with 12 commercial engagements focusing on Ireland's high-quality, sustainably-produced beef, dairy, consumer foods, and seafood.
A total of 22 Irish companies are participating in the two legs of the trade mission, and the Japanese leg will have a particular focus on driving awareness of Irish drinks, including three drinks activation events.
South Korea
Speaking on the opportunity in the Republic of Korea, minister Heydon said: 'The focus of this trade mission is to build on and promote Ireland's reputation in agri-food in the Republic of Korea and Japan, and the wider Asia region.
"The trade mission will take in Seoul Food, Korea's largest international exhibition for the food, drink, hotel and food service industry and Expo 2025 in Osaka, which is expected to attract more than 28 million visitors, with participation by 160 countries, providing high-profile opportunities to showcase Ireland as a source of high-quality food, including dairy products, meat, seafood, drinks, prepared consumer foods and food ingredients, which satisfies the growing demand for such produce in this region.'
Total agri-food exports to South Korea amounted to €39m or 1% of all Irish agri-food exports by value, amounting to 11,000t. In 2024, dairy produce represented the largest segment of Ireland's agri-food export value to South Korea, worth €15m. Pigmeat was the second most valuable export at €7.4m.
South Koreans are the highest per-capita consumers of meat in Asia, with consumption of 60kg per person, of which 17kg is beef. Projections of beef consumption among South Koreans are expected to increase by 1%.
Last year, South Korea imported almost 500,000t of beef, with 92% coming from the United States and Australia, which could provide major opportunities for Irish beef suppliers.
'Irish beef gained access to the Korean market in 2024, which was a significant achievement. I was delighted to be in Seoul last September for the launch of Irish beef on the market. This week is about building on the excellent relationships, both official and commercial, we have developed in the Republic of Korea and Japan, to strengthen and expand the relationships,' explained minister Heydon.
Bord Bia CEO, Jim O'Toole, said this mission aims to build further connections with importers and distributors, particularly for beef.
'The Republic of Korea is the most valuable beef market in Asia and should be seen as a long-term, stable opportunity for the Irish beef industry," he said.
Bord Bia's 2024 Korean Consumer Research tells us that grass-fed beef is viewed as being 'healthy' and a more 'natural' choice for consumers, as well as being considered a premium product. This sets us apart from our grain-fed competitors in the market, and one we are using to reach an affluent consumer base.
'This trade mission is about deepening existing key trade relationships with customers and targeting new business opportunities, particularly around food service and in retail via e-commerce platforms,' Mr O'Toole added.
Minister Heydon also said that he was pleased with a senior officials meeting in Seoul to discuss trade and co-operation opportunities between the Republic of Korea and Ireland, at which his team were able to stress that they would welcome the approval of further meat plants to supply beef.
Japan
Speaking on prospects with Japan, minister Heydon said: 'Japan is an important trading partner for Ireland, the third largest destination for Irish agri-food exports outside of Europe. In recent years, we have seen this relationship grow and strengthen across a broad range of products.
"I was delighted to see Irish Premium Oysters recently launched into the Japanese market and to see demand continue to increase for Irish agri-food products.'
Japan is the third-largest destination for Irish agri-food exports outside of Europe. In 2024, exports were valued at €173m, an increase of 181% since 2014, and an increase of 49% since 2018.
The EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement has been in force since 2019. Over time, 85% of EU agri-food exports (in tariff lines) will be allowed to enter Japan entirely duty-free.
Japan was identified by Bord Bia as a priority market with high potential growth for Irish dairy, drinks, meat and seafood products. Irish agri-food exports to Japan have now exceeded €1bn since 2019.
During the trade mission, three Japanese chefs joined Bord Bia's first Asian Chapter of the Chef's Irish Beef Club. Chefs Yuji Hayashi (The Momentum by Porsche), Yuki Inoue (Ristorante La Bisboccia), and Kenzo Nishizawa (Trattoria Da Kenzo) were formally inducted this week into the international club.
Japan is the second biggest beef importer in the world and in recent years Irish beef tongue has surged in popularity. Irish drinks, particularly whiskey, have also seen a surge in recent years, with exports to Japan growing 32% to €10.9m in 2024.
Read More
The Cork pedigree cow breeder who has expanded from the Irish market to the US and Europe
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Ryanair to base fourth aircraft at Shannon adding routes to Madrid and Lapland
Ryanair announced on Wednesday it will add a fourth aircraft at Shannon Airport this winter, described as a 'gamechanger' for the region, adding 100,000 passengers. The announcement will see three new routes this winter to Lapland, Madeira and Madrid, in addition to extra flights on six existing routes - Alicante, Edinburgh, Kraków, Lanzarote, Manchester, and Wrocław - for Winter 25/26. The announcement will help to deliver 20% traffic growth to Shannon. 'This expansion offers even greater choice for our passengers and strengthens Shannon's position as a key gateway to and from the West of Ireland. Ryanair's investment is a powerful endorsement of the potential of Shannon, a vote of confidence in the market here, and a testament to the progress we've made growing passenger numbers,' said Shannon Airport Group chief executive Mary Considine. 'We see a huge potential for growth and believe there is a real opportunity for Shannon Airport to lead the way in rebalancing the national landscape." Ryanair's chief commercial officer Jason McGuinness said the company is investing €350m in the region. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said: 'We've been here at Shannon Airport for 36 years. There's an ambitious management team here that understands the competition they face against the 40 countries and 240 airports that Ryanair operates across Europe. 'We are probably one of the biggest single investors in regional Ireland at the moment. We've doubled the amount of seats we're offering across regional Irish airports and we have doubled the number of passengers we have in Shannon from 800,000 to 1.6m.' Passenger numbers at Shannon Airport reached a 15-year high in 2024, surpassing 2.1m in the 12 months. The addition of a fourth aircraft will mean it will have one more than Cork Airport, which last year reported 3.1m passengers. Asked if Ryanair will also seek to increase its fleet in Cork Airport, Mr McGuinness said: 'I would hope so. We are very committed to regional Irish airports. We have three aircraft based in Cork this winter, but I would hope that could increase. I'm happy to talk to anyone of our 240 airports across Europe.' 'Both airports can grow and we can add more routes to both, but we have never been shy in saying that we allocate capacity wherever costs are best and where we can get the best long-term deals. If the DAA want to come up with something better in terms of its cost base for Cork, we're very happy to talk to them.' 'In terms of our plan to grow from 20m passengers to 30m, the majority of that growth, around 60%, was actually in regional airports, predominantly in Cork and Shannon.' The added aircraft for the 2025 Shannon Airport winter season will result in an additional $100m investment by Ryanair, which Mr McGuinness said is already investing heavily in the region. 'There will be a direct extra 30 jobs spanning across pilots and cabin crew, as well as additional in maintenance and in engineering. We're also likely to be announcing more maintenance jobs in Shannon over the next few months.' Mary Considine, CEO of the Shannon Airport Group told the Irish Examiner: 'This is a massive vote of confidence for us. The more aircraft we have here, the more frequency and services Ryanair can offer. In addition to increased frequencies for our six most popular routes, they have also been able to announce three new routes for the winter.'
Irish Independent
3 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Private equity interest turns up the heat on Ireland's fire-safety sector
Industry consolidation and recurring revenues make safety service providers an appealing target Private equity firms are stepping up their interest in Ireland's fire safety sector, as the lure of consolidating the fragmented industry attracts more international investors. The latest sign of M&A activity heating up came last week when Ranger Fire and Security, backed by London-based investment firm Hyperion Equity Partners, bought Aqua Fire Prevention. The deal was Ranger's second acquisition in Ireland, building on last year's purchase of KSS Fire Suppression and its 10th deal overall since launching in early 2024. Mark Bridges, CEO of Ranger, said the seven-figure deal to buy Aqua was the first of many for the private equity-backed group. 'It wouldn't surprise me if we did another three or four this year in Ireland alone,' he said. 'We are a broad church. We cover all services with a real focus on the active fire and security elements, especially the maintenance side.' Bridges said Ranger would invest 'multiple millions' in the Irish market as it hopes to consolidate the 'very fragmented' fire-safety sector. He added that Ireland was attracting more attention from buyers. If the right deal comes up, I'll take it. A good business is always hard to get 'We all want to be early adopters,' he said. 'We weren't first, but we're seeing more interest in the space.' Looking at the Irish industry, Bridges said the fire-safety sector in Ireland had many appealing characteristics. 'It is in life safety, which is clearly very important to people and something that is unlikely to be reduced by any government. It's more likely to be enhanced, because of the importance of keeping people safe. 'But the market is incredibly fragmented. There are 4,000 businesses in the UK and Ireland. It's regulated, and the regulations in Ireland are very similar to those in the UK. 'Finally, because of the maintenance-led approach that we focus on, there are recurring revenues – and that is appealing. All those characteristics make it an exciting sector,' Bridges added. ADVERTISEMENT 'We think, therefore, we can do some really good things in the market as well.' The acquisition of Aqua, founded by Brendan Mooney in 1986 and with 3,000 customers, including RTÉ and Boyle Sports, will see the brand retained, with cross-selling opportunities into the group's other fire-safety entities. Ranger hopes to become the go-to provider in the UK and Ireland sector, with revenue now hitting £40m. Aqua's core services include fire extinguisher supply and installation, equipment service and maintenance, fire prevention compliance and fire safety training. Hyperion is not the only private equity player that has acquired Irish fire-safety firms. Dutch private equity firm Waterland acquired fire protection system provider Writech in 2021. Ted Wright, CEO of Writech, said the Mullingar-based group now owns six businesses in Ireland, with three more in the UK and another three in Europe. It is in the process of acquiring a 13th business in the UK. 'If the right deal comes up, I'll take it,' he says. 'Ireland is difficult to do a deal in any way. A lot of founders have really looked after their business. A good business is always hard to get. There will always be competition for good businesses. 'It is more private equity than trade,' he added on the competition. Wright said Writech was not actively looking in Ireland, but its 'ears were always open' for deals.
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
The red tape Ireland's entrepreneurs face must be reviewed
US president Trump's tariffs merry-go-round continues to dominate global headlines. Firms are weary of the oscillation between 'tariffs-on' and 'tariffs-off' — but this pattern shows no sign of abating. It's a truism at this stage, but uncertainty has become the new normal. Understandably, there is concern among Irish policymakers, and indeed the general public, as to what the new economic dispensation will mean for Ireland's FDI-led economic model. FDI companies operating in Ireland deeply value their presence here and the contribution this has made to their business. Many companies have invested heavily in Ireland and dismantling investment of this nature and locating it somewhere else is not easily done, even if firms were minded to do so. And though we don't detect any appetite of this nature in the market there is an issue, however, in relation to further growth of Ireland's stock of FDI in future. The continuing uncertainty is having an impact on firms' investment decisions as they look to incorporate a 'wait-and-see' approach. In this context, it is important to look at Ireland's capability to continue to deliver economic and employment growth in a (still hypothetical) world where the level of FDI is lower than it has been. The health and prosperity of our homegrown businesses will be vitally important in this scenario. Ireland has a track record of generating world-beating businesses, but the reality is the current policy environment is not calibrated to achieve our full potential in this area. Successive governments have sought to introduce various policies to foster more entrepreneurship. Adjustments are made year-to-year across budgets, but the day-to-day reality has been that the design of some of these schemes is not suitable to achieve the desired ends. Tax practitioners like myself and my colleagues are seeing this on a regular basis as we seek to help clients utilise these schemes. KEEP scheme Take the KEEP scheme for example. This is designed to enable companies to grant share options to employees on a tax-efficient basis, essentially so the share is taxed within the capital gains bracket rather than the income tax bracket. Granting share options to employees is a good way of supplementing their remuneration in an environment where large firms with deep pockets are competing for the same talent. The issue with KEEP, unfortunately, is it is not working in practice; take-up is extremely low. What we see in our practice is that firms will tend to opt for so-called 'unapproved' share schemes rather than KEEP, even though the unapproved schemes are taxed more heavily from the perspective of the employee. Why are they doing this? The biggest reason we can see is the limit that attaches to the total value of share options that can be issued to an individual employee (€300,000). There is also a limit of €6m on the total amount of share options that can be issued (across all employees) and unexercised at any point in time. These limits restrict firms' ability to offer really competitive packages across their companies. Instead, they are opting for unapproved schemes that mean employees can be offered a higher value of share options, albeit in a less tax-efficient manner. The UK equivalent of KEEP, which has much less red tape attached, works much better, and the Government should look to draw lessons from it. Angel investor scheme On March 1, the Government commenced the new angel investor relief scheme which aims to incentivise investment in startups by reducing capital gains tax to 16%-18% on the sale by angel investors of these investments. It is early days, but we are not optimistic for take-up. Again, there is a lot of administration work involved for the small firms that are the targeted beneficiaries. They need to hold two certificates, showing they are an innovative company that is a going concern, and obtaining these involves an application process which many companies would need to undertake. In addition, investment by family members, a common source of funding for early-stage companies, has restrictions attached. Taken together, we believe these will serve as a significant brake on uptake of this scheme. A relaxation of the restrictions on family members and a self-declaration process allowing firms to obtain the qualifying certificates would be preferable. Another way to increase take-up would be to allow the relief to apply where investment is directed towards follow-on or expansion funding, rather than simply angel investment. The above are two examples of how Ireland's policy regime could be enhanced to encourage more entrepreneurship. There are others, including changes to the oft-criticised entrepreneur's relief scheme. We know we have a fantastic, knowledgeable, skilled and talented workforce. We are lucky to have it. But at a time like now, when the outlook for growth in FDI is hazy, it's important that we consider how to drive homegrown businesses forward. In this regard, a wholesale government review of policies towards entrepreneurship is warranted. Brendan Murphy is a tax partner at Baker Tilly Ireland
