Bord Bia promotes appeal of Irish food in nation of gourmets

Judging by the way they tucked into the Tyrconnell and Shangarry whiskey at noon, followed by Irish steaks prepared by one of Paris' top chefs, the dozen food industry specialists invited to celebrate St Patrick's Day with Bord Bia's chief executive, Mr Michael Duffy, must have been the happiest journalists in France.

And if the correspondents from publications like Le Nouvel Epicier and Decision Boissons still needed convincing, there were generous samples of smoked salmon and whiskey to take home after the feast.

Mr Duffy flew from Dublin in the morning with sprigs of fresh shamrock - "a simple Irish plant plucked from our green pastures" - for his French audience. France and Ireland are linked because, 1,500 years ago, St Patrick was born in Brittany, he reminded them.

And in Ireland, as in France, "food and hospitality go hand in hand", he said.

The poetry thus dispensed with, Mr Duffy told the French journalists the real reason for his visit. The food industry is the biggest in Ireland, representing 15 per cent of all Irish exports, and France is Ireland's biggest continental market. Bord Bia's sales in France - nearly 10 per cent of all Irish food exports - shot up another 12.25 per cent in 1998 to pass the £373 million (€473.61 million) mark .

According to Ms Tara McCarthy, Bord Bia's head of marketing in France, meat and meat products account for £169.6 million of that total, with dairy products trailing at £82.8 million and fish and ready-meals accounting for £51.2 million.

Because Lipton now produces iced tea concentrate in Ireland, Irish sales in the French coffee, tea and spices sector increased by 440 per cent last year. Meanwhile, Irish butter oil exports increased more than 300 per cent because of their competitive price, while Irish beer sales rose by 227 per cent.

Ms Marie Drion, a Frenchwoman who was raised in Ireland, represented the Dundalk-based Cooley Distillery. With 35 employees and a turnover of £5.3 million (€6.72 million) last year, Cooley cannot compete with the huge budget of companies like Pernod-Ricard, which owns Jameson, the best-known Irish whiskey in France. But it has nonetheless carved a niche for itself by offering private labels to virtually all of the big French supermarket chains.

"It was an area that Irish Distillers (owned by Pernod-Ricard) never focused on," Ms Drion said. "They just focused on their own brand."

Mr Jean-Luc Wattez, of Carokeel Seafoods, told yet another story of Irish success in France. The company has grown between 20 and 30 per cent every year since it was created in 1984, employs 65 people and has a turnover of £12 million, of which one quarter is accounted for by exports to France. Sixty-four "hyper-markets" across France are this week promoting Carokeel smoked salmon with Fetez la St Patrick signs, stickers, caps and T-shirts.

The Irish Dairy Board (IDB), a co-operative set up in 1961, provides ingredients to French yoghurt, biscuit and baby food manufacturers. It also sells Kerrygold butter to 300 supermarkets throughout the country. The IDB has set up its European headquarters in the old Loyez-Woessen plant in Lille, which it bought in 1997. Mr Roddy Feely said the IDB's strategy in France is based on "exemplary efficiency in the speed with which orders are filled and delivery dates met".

The Irish exporters who converged on Paris' Westminster Hotel yesterday do not seem to need any assistance. But Ms Drion promised the superstitious that 1999 will be a prosperous year for them if they soak their shamrock in the whiskey she provided, then throw it over their left shoulder.