Tag: Farm Week

BBC Good Food Show Belfast To Showcase Local Product

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Another highlight in the food and drink calendar here opens its doors at the Waterfront Conference Centre in Belfast on Friday 10th November. The BBC Good Food Show is a spectacular three-day event showcasing the very of local produce and many of the UK top chefs.

Food NI is delighted to be involved again with the coordinator of what is probably the most important food and drink show franchise in the UK. We contributed to the success last year when the show was held here for the first time and have been involved again with River Street Events, the organisers, to ensure the attendance this year will be better than in 2016.

Dozens of local food and drink companies will be showing, sampling and selling their superb products. It will be the biggest food and drink event this year beyond our own fantastic Food NI Pavilion at the RUAS in Balmoral Estate.

Our support for this hugely important foodie event has included lobbying the organisers and Belfast City Council to secure a licence for alcohol exhibitors to sell their products to visitors, this was an issue last year that excluded producers of craft beers, ciders and spirits from the show.

We have, of course, a very vibrant cluster of companies producing innovative beverages including over 30 craft breweries. Our cider producers have also won a string of international awards as well as the well-deserved acclaim from cider experts. And our gin, whiskey and vodka producers are also making an impact in markets beyond these shores.

Alcohol exhibitors will now be able to sell through an onsite off licence located close to the exhibition stand space.

This is a significant development for the show, which is set to attract over 12,500 foodies and will feature a new and improved floorplan with the addition of a spacious ground floor hall showcasing local products.

Top chefs taking part will also be cooking with as many local products as possible. Included in the distinguished line-up of top chefs are the famed Michel Roux Jr, the Hairy Bikers, Nadiya Hussain, John Torode and, of course, our own food ambassador Paula McIntyre.

BBC Good Food in Belfast really is an event that foodies here just cannot afford to miss. It will showcase the very best that producers here have to offer and provide opportunities to visitors to talk to the people behind our original and award winning produce and to hear their often inspirational stories especially against the background of growing interest among consumers in food provenance and transparency.

It’s a tremendous opportunity to experience the commitment of local food and drink producers to wholesome and innovative products, which are increasingly attracting sales in Britain and further afield. Food and drink remains our biggest manufacturing industry that’s continuing to grow steadily in terms of sales, exports and employment. And, of course, benefits our farming industry immensely.

So, grasp the opportunity that BBC Good Food Show provides to sample the superb products from this hugely significant local industry.

LacPatrick Dairy Co-Operative Celebrates Surge in Dried Milk Sales

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Column by Michele Shirlow for Farm Week (21 September)

There was some very significant news last week for Northern Ireland food and drink companies from Gabriel D’Arcy, the chief executive of LacPatrick dairy co-operative at a briefing about the company’s £30 million high-tech milk powder drier complex at Artigarvan in Tyrone.

Mr D’Arcy revealed that the co-operative, formed in July 2015 by the merger of Town of Monaghan and Ballyrashane co-operative in Coleraine, has seen a surge in business –  around 25 per cent – in Britain in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Many food manufacturers there, he indicated, have been taking steps to realign their supply chains especially if there’s to be a hard Brexit and the imposition of tariffs and other bureaucratic obstacles on the import of the powders and other ingredients from established suppliers in other parts of Europe.

Mr D’Arcy is the latest business leader to warn that a complete withdrawal from the EU, including the Single Market and Customs Union, would have adverse consequences particularly for Northern Ireland.

The LacPatrick experience also demonstrates that there are significant opportunities in Britain for our companies arising from the concerns developing among manufacturers there over both short and long term security in the supply of ingredients as well as other products and services they require.

There’s also been a similar warning from Mike Coupe, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, that Brexit could lead to extensive supply chain disruption from possible customs controls that’s “not fully recognised” by the UK government. He added that anything disrupting established food supply chains, currently governed by EU customs arrangements, would be “detrimental”.

Anything that encumbered trade has two effects, it adding cost, and impacting freshness. He presented a grim picture o fresh food left rotting at the British border if strict customs controls for EU goods are put in place after a hard Brexit.

Could Northern Ireland suppliers step up to the plate and plug any developing supply gap?  I believe that we could substantially increase the products we supply to manufacturers, retailers and consumers there.

As our success in national awards such as Great Taste demonstrates, Northern Ireland has the potential to do so. We’ve a vast range of quality food and drink that’s outstandingly tasty, wholesome, nutritious offering great value for money. And the products are exceptionally close to the market. We can supply customers there in a matter of hours.

We clearly need, therefore, to be alive to these opportunities, which demands a much greater engagement with the food and drink industry and consumers in Britain, a key policy thrust for Food NI in our well-received Taste the Greatness action strategic action plan.

We really do need to be involved to a much greater extent in discussions in Britain.  Other regions are actively involved. Scotland, for example, is demanding that the government must urgently set out how it will protect funding for its food and drink, especially fish and seafood, post-Brexit or risk undermining Scotland’s food and drink success story.

What about Northern Ireland?

Food NI Making Waves In London Speciality Fine Food Fair

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Column by Michele Shirlow for Farm Week

Our strategic focus on promoting our food and drink and the companies which produce exceptional quality and innovative products in Great Britain moves onto another level next week in London.

As well as showcasing local companies, especially Great Taste Award winners, at the big Speciality Food Fair at Olympia, we will be hosting an event for some of the UK’s most influential food writers at a leading restaurant of celebrity chef Mark Hix.

The event is Food NI’s way of thanking food writers who have endorsed the food and drink from quality producers, many, I am delighted to say are among our members. It’s our way of showing how much we appreciate their interest and support and to encourage them to keep up the good work.

Our guests include such established and respected food journalists as Xanthe Clay, contributor to the Daily and Sunday Telegraph food pages, Pete Brown, world cider expert and author or many books on the subject, our very good friend Charles Campion, the MasterChef judge who contributes to so many publications including Speciality Food Magazine, and Lucas Hollweg, a chef who contributes to the likes of the Times. They’ve become regular visitors to these shores and have become firm friends of Northern Ireland.

We’ve been working very closely with UK and international food writers over many years. Building relationships with influential food experts is a key element in our strategy to increase awareness of our superb food and drink in Great Britain, easily our most important and successful marketplace.

It was immensely encouraging, for instance, to see a very warm and highly supportive exchange on social media last week between Jeremy Lee, an acclaimed chef at the high-end Quo Vadis restaurant in Soho, and NearyNogs Chocolates in Newry. He is using the chocolate in the desserts he’s now creating at the restaurant for high-end diners.

Lee visited Northern Ireland last May as a guest of Food NI. It is his first visit to Northern Ireland and is another excellent example of the successful relationship building undertaken by Food NI on behalf of local food and drink companies.

The food writers also bring a wealth of knowledge and experience with them and generously provide advice to our companies in areas such as product enhancement and market opportunities. They bring to the industry here immense knowledge from visits to global markets, and we really do appreciate their support.

We’d certainly like to do more with food writers because we can offer easy access to the smaller companies who tend to provide the interesting people stories and innovative products that food writers seek. And developing these people stories is an important aspect of our Taste the Greatness action plan. We know them and understand what they need and what they want to achieve. This knowledge is based on the work we do with them on a regular basis.

Other food experts will be visiting our presentation at Speciality Food in Olympia, the UK’s biggest showplace for smaller food and drink companies.

Our participation at Speciality, a first for Food NI, is also being supported by many smaller companies, and we’ll be doing our utmost to assist and encourage them as they seek to influence the very many buyers from major retailers and independent delis at the show. Supported by Tourism Ireland and InvestNI it is a great opportunity to influence some of the 11,000 buyers expected to check in to visit the show.

It’s going to be a busy week for Food NI and for our member companies, a week which, I believe, will help increase awareness of their stories and products in Britain. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Novelli will be great ambassador in Britain for our food

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Article by Michele Shirlow for Farm Week

Jean-Christophe Novelli had some very important and immensely encouraging comments about the quality of our food and drink during his inspirational presentation at Balmoral Show and media features last month. It was a great pleasure to host his visit to the show and to set up a number of meetings with local producers.

He made a great many friends at Balmoral, and we look forward to developing the relationship further as part of our longstanding focus on collaborating with chefs working here on behalf of local food and drink producers. Local ingredients are featuring increasingly on local menus and relationships between chefs, restaurateurs and suppliers here are probably stronger than ever before – helped by the hugely successful Year of Food and Drink 2016.

Jean-Christophe’s support for our products in the Mediterranean-style dishes he will be creating for his planned new restaurant at the Marriott Hotel in Belfast will showcase their quality, innovation and taste. I am sure he will be a tremendous ambassador for our food and drink and his presence in the city will help Food NI as we seek to assist companies here to grow business in Great Britain.

I am also confident that his support for Belfast, as the location of his first restaurant on the island of Ireland, will assist Tourism NI and Tourism Ireland as they continue to develop the food and drink theme to attract tourists particularly from Britain and Europe. A key objective for Food NI is to see our food and drink being featured by a great many more restaurants in Britain and Ireland.

We want to see Northern Ireland ingredients listed on menus both here, in Britain and indeed further afield. This will also involve developing more branded ingredients. Europe has helped this process by designating three local products – Armagh Bramley apples, Comber early potatoes and Lough Neagh eels – under its protected names scheme. Others are in the pipeline. What will happen to this scheme post-Brexit remains to be seen. It’s crucially important that an effective replacement is developed.

Jean-Christophe Novelli wasn’t the only star in Northern Ireland’s culinary firmament last month. The annual Restaurant Association of Ireland Awards recognised the achievements and talents of our chefs and the quality of restaurants here. Danni Barry, already the only female Michelin-star chef in Ireland, was named Ireland’s Chef of the Year, a tremendous recognition for EIPIC’s highly skilled and creative head chef.  EIPIC owner Michael Deane has already been shortlisted in the Catey’s as Restaurateur of the Year.

Walled City Brewery in Derry was chosen as Ireland’s Best Gastropub and OX Cave in Belfast the Best Wine Experience. Sommelier Alain Kerloc’h of OX was named Ireland’s Best Manager. And there were awards too for Bull and Ram in Ballynahinch as Best Newcomer in Ulster, The Muddlers Club in Belfast as Ulster’s Best Casual Dining Experience. Lost and Found in Derry was selected as the All Ireland Best Café.

My congratulations to all our award winners who are playing their part in Northern Ireland’s emergence as a great global food destination. Food NI is keen to see the excellence of our chefs recognised well beyond these shores.

Local producers will also benefit enormously from a recent decision by Musgrave retail group to invest £100 million this year in our food. This is a further and immensely encouraging example of a leading retailer backing local produce. Musgrave already sells 3,000 products from local suppliers.