A standoff in the latest Brexit negotiations has been blamed on supposed “factional infighting” in Downing Street, as Dominic Cummings confirmed he will leave the government by Christmas. Manfred Weber, the leader of the largest party in the European parliament and a political ally of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, lamented the “chaotic situation” at the heart of No 10. Cummings, Boris Johnson’s most powerful aide and former Vote Leave campaign director, confirmed on Thursday evening after days of speculation he would leave Downing Street.

A no-deal Brexit was still a serious risk, EU diplomats warned, before accusing British negotiators of failing to 'engage sufficiently'. There are still "wide divergences" on "core issues" of the Brexit trade negotiations, David Frost said on Wednesday night after two weeks of intensive talks with the EU. A no trade deal Brexit remained a serious risk, EU diplomats warned, accusing British negotiators of failing to "engage sufficiently" on the three most divisive issues.

Brexit talks this week have been making good progress, according to Ursula Von der Leyen. As the negotiations moved to Brussels after seven days in London, the European commission president said that they were making good progress and were hoping to see more progress soon on the outstanding issues of the level of access to British waters the UK will provide to EU fishing fleets, fair competition rules for business, including rules on domestic subsidies, and the mechanism in the final treaty for resolving future disputes. The European council president, Charles Michel, said the state of the talks would probably assessed next week with Brussels hoping to start the ratification process in mid-November.

Talks over a post-Brexit trade deal have resumed in London, after negotiators returned to the table following a week-long standoff. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss insisted a deal can still be done with the EU, as officials began a new round of "intensified" daily talks. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has warned that "every day counts" ahead of a looming December deadline. He said both sides share a "huge common responsibility" as talks restarted.

Hellofresh, a meal-kit delivery company which was established in Berlin in 2011 has experienced year-on-year growth since then. Hellofresh now has approximately 1.5m customers globally with 2,000 employees worldwide.

Poland is still very fragmented, and one of the most competitive retail markets in Europe. Euromonitor reports that the grocery retail market grows at 4.2% (2017).

The second Brand Forum meeting of 2019 took place in the now familiar RDS Minerva Suite and featured speakers who at first glance appeared to have little in common; Tom Stancliffe and Guy Hacking; two of the co-founders of Tribe a young digitally inspired food start up making a range of performance nutrition products from London and Kelly Rafferty Vice President for Global Marketing Capability from Kellogg’s, the venerable one hundred and thirteen year old food behemoth from Battle Creek Michigan.

Augmented Reality is no longer a concept of the future, it is now part of the day to day. Social media platforms and mobile gaming applications, such as Snapchat and Pokémon Go, have made AR more accessible than ever before.

In the development of Bord Bia’s recently published ‘Guide to Food Markets in Ireland’, research was undertaken with stall holders and market managers and organizers in Ireland as well as identifying international best practice to define what factors are critical and common to successful food markets.

The market for lactose-free products in many countries across Europe remains highly under-represented and for many lactose-intolerant consumers, products catering to their dietary needs can still be difficult to come across. The Spanish market however is one of the exceptions to this trend as growth in recent years has outperformed all but one other European country.

According to a Eurobarometer data report on "Habits of consumption of fish and aquaculture products" by Kantar TNS for the European Commission, 3 out of 4 Spaniards aged 15 and over consume fish or fish products at least once a week at home.

Spain, with a total bovine herd of 6.18m heads, (of which 1.9m are suckler cows and 0.84m are dairy cows), and a production of 640,000tn of beef, is a relevant cattle importer (nearly 584,000 heads in 2016) both for its beef industry but more recently it has also started playing an important role as a livestock exporter to third countries.

A snapshot of some of the latest alcohol trends highlighted at the recent Imbibe Live event in London (Stylus, 2018).

More Consumer Insights Food Alerts

Coffee has been a growing phenomenon among Irish consumers in recent years with 75% of Irish consumers stating they drink coffee, and seven in ten drinking more than one cup a day.

More Consumer Insights Food Alerts

Coffee has been a growing phenomenon among Irish consumers in recent years with 75% of Irish consumers stating they drink coffee, and seven in ten drinking more than one cup a day.

More Consumer Insights Food Alerts

Global trends in food and drink indicate that today’s consumers are becoming more conscious about making healthy food choices with four in ten US and UK consumers increasing their consumption of healthy foods.

More Consumer Insights Food Alerts

Traditionally, private labels have been used to give retailers, such as Aldi, Amazon, and Tesco, increased control over product marketing, distribution, and sales. Now these organizations are converting these labels into premium brands...

In Ireland, the F2G channel is set to grow at 5.2% CAGR over the next three years, over and above the healthy compound growth forecast for the wider foodservice market of 4.4%.

Experience driven consumers are driving the changing face of foodservice. In Bord Bia’s new foodservice report, entertainment is increasingly valued by consumers and willingness to pay premium prices for something “unique and different” is in no short supply.

As Ron Finley once said in his Ted Talk on Gorilla Gardening - “To Grow your own food is like printing your own money”