Ireland’s food and drink industry faces significant short-term challenges related to cost competitiveness and depressed
global demand, as well as longer term (and possibly more serious) challenges related to the perceived diminished future for the sector in Ireland’s economy.
Yet Ireland has a critical (and increasingly scarce) natural resource base, international reputation as a trusted supplier, proximity to a large premium market with a single currency, and global consumer awareness that is much larger than the country’s land mass might suggest. The purpose of this paper is to describe how Ireland might turn its natural advantages into high-value exports.