Musgrave, BDO and Matheson discuss food labelling, the Northern Ireland protocol and international food security concerns.
The Annual Guaranteed Irish Food & Beverage Forum, kindly sponsored by SuperValu and BDO Ireland, featured an industry leading line-up within the food sector. Hosted by Matheson at Two Penrose Dock Cork, the panel discussion featured industry thought leaders Liam Hyland Director of Export & International Trade at Musgrave, Kate McKenna Partner EU Competition and Regulatory Group at Matheson and Carol Lynch Partner in Customs, and International Trade Services at BDO Ireland.
The panel of food industry experts met at Matheson offices, aptly located in the food hub of County Cork to examine the scaling opportunities and legal challenges of international trade. Liam Hyland, Director of Export & International Trade at Musgrave, said: “The quality and taste of Irish food is celebrated across the world. With annual Irish food, drink and horticulture export sales now exceeding €13 billion, the foundations are laid to further build on this success. At Musgrave, we have worked closely with Irish food and drink producers for over 145 years growing good business in Ireland and now we believe we can support them to access international export markets and customers with complex needs.
“This year, we opened Ireland’s first food export fulfilment centre at our Ballymun site in Dublin, five minutes from Dublin airport. At this centre, we consolidate product from various producers and then add unique services including language labelling, certification, air freight preparation and so on to ensure that products are eligible for entry to the intended international market. This saves producers time, money, and resources, and helps them to benefit from the knowledge Musgrave have gathered over many decades but even more importantly it simplifies the transaction for the end customer.
“At Musgrave, we are very proud of our partnership with Guaranteed Irish. The symbol is well known across Ireland and assures customers of a product’s provenance and quality. Going forward, the Guaranteed Irish symbol could be something that shoppers across the world look for when they want to verify the product they are buying, whether they are in Dubai or Donegal. In Musgrave, we are seeing a huge demand for Irish products from our international customers, and it is a very exciting time to be in the food business in this country.”
Kate McKenna Partner EU Competition and Regulatory Group at Matheson shared her insights on the food labelling considerations and the opportunities within the Irish food sector in terms of leveraging food provenance. Kate McKenna explained, ‘’Food labelling can be looked at as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage in the market…now where there are fast changing rules, you can get a head of your competitors…There are long lead times in changes of law… You can add value to your business by keeping ahead of developments… Getting an early handle on how things are moving is a source of great competitive advantage.’’
The panel agreed on the importance of traceability as key to the Irish food and beverage sector, and the role the Guaranteed Irish symbol plays in safeguarding and strengthening the integrity of locally produced food in Ireland. Carol Lynch Partner in Customs, and International Trade Services at BDO Ireland said it’s vital to ensure that the impact Brexit controls are having on British exporters does not happen in Ireland.
Carol Lynch outlined that ‘’Fortunately, we had Ireland being carved out from the UK requirements that came into effect for the EU on Jan 1st this year, and it looks like the extra set of controls are not going to come into effect until Jan 2023. There is good breathing space there for Irish exporters, but if you look at the impact of the Brexit controls on UK exporters and what you need to do now to export from the UK into Europe…that has been quite damaging for British exports, so we need to make sure that doesn’t happen in Ireland.’’
Visit www.guaranteedirish.ie for further information.