Ten Cork Food Companies Generated over 300 Sales Leads Working Together Under the ‘Taste Cork’ Brand at the UK’s largest Food Trade Fair IFE 2015

IFE 2015 Took Place at ExCeL at London’s Royal Victoria Dock from 22nd to 25th March 2015

Ten Cork micro food producers flew the flag for Cork, showing off some of the city and county’s finest fare at one of the world’s biggest and most important food and drink industry events, IFE 2015.

The event brings together the crème de la crème of the global food industry. Taking place in London’s Docklands, IFE is the UK’s largest international food industry expo, with more than 1350 exhibitors, making it one of the key events on the international food industry calendar.

The Cork companies represented the region at a specially designed branded trade stand as part of the Taste Cork regional marketing initiative funded by Cork County Council and Cork Local Enterprise Offices (City, North/West and South).

Taste Cork participant, iASC (The Atlantic Seafood Company of Ireland) picked up a IFE World Food Innovation Award in the Best New Condiment or Marinade category for their Something Fishy Irish Shellfish Culinary Butter.

Three Taste Cork participants were also selected to feature in the top New Product Live Showcase. This is a specially curated collection of the top 100 products selected from the over 1340 innovative food products on display at at IFE 2015:

• Ballyhoura Apple Farm was selected for their Original Irish Hot Friskey.
• iASC (The Atlantic Seafood Company of Ireland) were picked for their Something Fishy – Irish Shellfish Culinary Butters 
• De Roiste were selected for their ‘Not Just For Breakfast’ terrine.

IFE, which takes place every two years, is be a major opportunity for these Cork food producers to showcase their products to international buyers and have face-to-face meetings with key buyers in the UK, wider European and global marketplace. 

This is the third year that Cork producers have been represented at major UK trade fairs. Taste Cork attended IFE in 2013 and Food and Drink Expo in Birmingham last year, getting national exposure on RTE Television’s ‘Nationwide’ programme.

Local producers who participated in these previous events have already benefited from new distribution deals worth over a half million Euro.

Taste Cork stand brings these ten outstanding Cork food companies together under a single regional umbrella brand and is backed up with an intensive ‘Export Ready’ training programme provided by the Local Enterprise Office that all participants were required to complete prior to being selected on the trip.

This innovative regional branding and enterprise support programme aims to increase awareness of Cork as a major international centre of food excellence and to provide local micro food enterprises with an opportunity to grow their businesses, helping to drive sustainable job creation throughout the region. 

Regional branding and cluster marketing has a long history and it has become an essential tool used by many similar small, specialised food regions elsewhere in Europe and in the United States.

Spoke about how a major presence at international events keeps Cork on the global food industry map:

“The food industry is of huge importance to the Cork economy and supports many jobs in communities throughout the region. Irish food and drink exports in 2014 topped €10.5 billion Euro, making it one of the key drivers of economic growth and recovery. Cork County Council has long been at the forefront of food sector innovation and development in Cork County. We have helped to drive the industry forward by developing a range of enterprise support services and through the provision of practical assistance to food enterprises at various stages of development. For example, we have led the way by creating a network of County Council owned, fully fitted commercial kitchens, production units and food business incubation units that are available to rent on cost-effective, flexible basis, minimising overheads and capital costs for Cork food companies at key stages in their business development. Having a Cork presence at major international food show events like IFE 2015 is vital to ensure that we continue to grow Cork as a food and tourism brand.”

Sean O'Sullivan, Head of Enterprise Local Enterprise Office South Cork outlined that as a country with a small domestic marketplace we need initiatives like this to provide economic growth and grow jobs at home. The project plays a vital role in the on-going development of Cork’s reputation as a centre of excellence for food:

“A key tenet of the ‘Action Plan for Jobs’ and the national policy statement for Entrepreneurship in Ireland is supporting our potential exporter to take them through their first steps and discover new overseas markets. We need to ensure that food producers learn to develop products with global appeal and start marketing them internationally very early on in the product development cycle. These targeted trade fairs allow micro—enterprises to engage in peer learning while also enabling clients to develop and build relationships with international customers.”