THE Irish Dairy Board will continue its sponsorship of the Kerrygold International Horse Show this year because it is "good value for money", the managing director of the board said yesterday.
Dr Noel Cawley said Bord Bainne had already spent between £1.5 million and £2 million on sponsoring the event since 1989 when it first became involved in the event at the Royal Dublin Society Showgrounds.
He was speaking at the publication of the board's annual report for 1995.
"The event is seen by 200 million viewers worldwide and it is especially popular in Germany, which is one of our key markets, Dr Cawley said. "It provides a very green image of Ireland for our customers." The Germans, he added, eat twice as much Irish butter as the Irish and show jumping was popular there.
He said the input into the Horse Show had to be viewed against the board's annual outlay of £7 million worldwide to promote Irish products. The board would review its involvement in the show at the end of the year.
This, he said, was done annually.
Asked if the board would consider sponsoring the Eurovision Song Contest next year, its chairman, Mr Tom Cleary, said: "It's there for the asking." It was clear from the reaction of the board executives they were not treating the question seriously.
Dr Cawley also said the recent BSE scare in Britain had led to a short term ban on the sale of Irish dairy products in some Arab countries and, in some European countries, Irish dairy products were taken off shelves.
He added that in some European markets, some of the board's competitors had used the crisis to their own advantage. One company, which had never purchased any product from the board, advertised that it did not buy either British or Irish produce. "In some areas the scare was used by customers to attempt to bring down prices but, fortunately, it did not last too long," he said.
Dr Cawley praised the Dutch co operatives which had mounted a strong publicity campaign showing that dairy products cannot be contaminated by BSE.