THE Irish Food Board is to use the network of over 300 Irish public houses in Germany to sell Irish food.
This emerged this weekend in Berlin at the annual Green Week consumer food fair where there is a very strong Irish presence.
The board, which is only a year in existence, has set up a special working party to link into the pub system as a base to sell Irish food.
According to Mr John McGrath, An Bord Bia's representative in Germany there has been a huge growth in the number of Irish public houses opening in Germany which is the second largest food and drinks market for Ireland on the Continent.
Second only in importance to the UK, Germany takes over £250 million worth of Irish produce every year in a highly competitive market.
According to Mr McGrath, the German breweries are now supporting Irish public houses in Germany because they have discovered that their turnover is at least three times that of local German public houses.
In some cases they are putting up money to help Irish people establish Irish bars, knowing that it will lead to an increase in the sales of local beers also.
"We now have well over 300 Irish pubs in Germany and we are looking at ways to get into them and link the drinks and food industries together," he said.
The development of the network will help Irish exporters, especially those involved in the meat trade, to win back customers who have turned their backs on red meat because of perceptions about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy.
There has been a 30 per cent drop in red meat consumption in Germany over the past year. However, the Food Board did score a major publicity coup this weekend.
The German Minister for Agriculture, Mr Bouchart, paid a courtesy visit to the Irish stand and while there was filmed eating Irish beef. This film was shown on German television.
The Irish stand - built to resemble an Irish village - received huge publicity at the show which is a consumer event attended by over 500,000 people.
The Food Board chose the show as the location to announce provisional meat and livestock export figures for last year which showed a 5 per cent growth or £83 million over the year.
It was generally accepted that the Irish exhibition at Green Week, where nine companies are exhibiting, is the best and brightest at the show which runs until next weekend.
The show is a major vehicle for food companies from 61 countries who compete in the lucrative German market. Business of over DM30 million is generated at the show.