Food and drink exports rose by 3 per cent overall last year to a record £5.2 billion (€6.6 billion) against the background of a difficult year in farming.
Figures from An Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, show the largest expansion was in prepared consumer foods such as confectionery and pizzas, where the growth rate was 9 per cent.
The figures show exports in the beef-production area increased by 8 per cent to £1.3 billion, an increase in value of 1.5 per cent, reflecting lower international prices.
Beef-production at export plants amounted to 600,000 tonnes, an increase of 8 per cent, and the sale of beef into intervention was very low. Only 9,000 tonnes were taken into EU coldrooms in the first quarter of the year.
The UK remained the principal EU market for Irish beef, amounting to 95,000 tonnes. A total of 150,000 tonnes of Irish beef went into continental markets, an increase of 15 per cent over the previous year.
The strongest performances were in the Netherlands, Italy and France, with an additional 5,000 tonnes of beef sold to each country. Bord Bia has identified these as core target markets in the next year.
Beef exports to markets beyond the EU at 300,000 tonnes were up marginally on 1998 levels, representing 55 per cent of total beef exports compared to 58 per cent in the previous year.
The dairy and ingredients market was worth £1.66 billion - the 0.4 per cent increase is attributed to the performance of the non-dairy food ingredients sector. Sheep-meat exports fell by 4.5 per cent to £136.5 million despite an increase in volume to 53,450 tonnes.
France was the main market for lamb, taking 41,000 tonnes, similar to last year. Lamb prices were down an average 8 per cent for the year. The Russian market for sheepskins remained closed.
Bacon and pork exports were down 2 per cent to £200 million, as the world market continued to be hit by over-supply. Prices were down 10 per cent on the previous year.
Commenting on the figures, Mr Michael Duffy, the board's chief executive, said the increase of 9 per cent in prepared consumer foods represented what could be done by exporting value-added foods.
He was happy with the 15 per cent increase in beef exports to continental Europe, which was in line with Bord Bia's key strategic objective for the sector.
"Our plan is to have 50 per cent of the beef exports going to Europe and the rest to international markets in two years time, because our future lies in the stable and higher priced EU markets," he said.
He expressed concern, however, at the long-term impact on the beef sector of exporting live cattle.
There were 410,000 head of cattle exported in the year and many of them went to the feed lots in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.
"In a very short time we will, in a sense, be competing against our own cattle in the European markets and we could find ourselves short of product here, " he added.
Mr Duffy said he was also monitoring the "substantial" imports of processed foods into Ireland from the EU, especially poultry and pigmeat. There were openings there for Irish producers if their price was competitive.
Mr Duffy said Ireland could remain ahead of its competitors if it continued to produce quality food which could be guaranteed safe to consumers and to the specifications required by our international customers.