This week Bord Bia and its Italian Chefs' Irish Beef Club (CIBC) teamed up with electrical appliance company ELECTROLUX to showcase the sustainability of top-class Irish organic beef and lamb, alongside the electrical company's award-winning, low-emissions appliances.
Irish organic meat was the highlight of a two-day culinary experience conducted by new CIBC member Alberto Canton, and Giorgio Pellegrini, President of Associazione Macellai di Milano e Provincia, both strong supporters of Bord Bia's sustainability initiative Origin Green.
Having recently received the Gold Class Award in RobecoSAM's Sustainability Yearbook, the event allowed Electrolux to showcase its sustainably produced equipment alongside top class sustainably produced Irish meat, at the prestigious Electrolux Professional headquarters in Pordenone, Italy.
At the event Massimo Presot, Marketing Director Electrolux, Italy Division said that: "Respect for the environment is one of the fundamental values that has inspired Electrolux Professional and supports the vision of the company. It is for this reason that the successful collaboration with prestigious partners such as Bord Bia – with whom we share the same green oriented philosophy – works so well. A concrete approach that involves each phase of the life cycle of our products, from design to manufacturing, from installation to disposal, with one goal: reducing environmental impact and operating costs."
Bord Bia was joined by ABP Food Group promoting Good Herdsmen and by Cattel Catering, an Italian food service distributor, as well as a number of participating media.
According to Nicolas Ranninger, manager Bord Bia Italy, the aim is to position sustainably produced Irish beef as one of the most recognizable products in Italy. He said: "The key objective of the event was to present Irish organic beef and lamb to one of our largest and enduring markets which has a growing appetite for organic products. Our focus is to explain that Irish organic beef (steer & heifers) comes from animals carefully selected for their meat characteristics differentiating the Irish offer from other European organic offers".
Irish Organic Food in Italy
According to Euromonitor, Italy is one of Europe's largest organic market valued at €2.1 billion for retail sales and €2.5 billion including foodservice sales in 2016. There are now over 2,250 organic food and beverage products, 19m Italian organic food consumers and the number of restaurants serving organic food has increased by 69% in the last five years.
Italy is Ireland's fourth largest beef export market overall, valued at €173m in 2016, as well as our eighth largest market for sheepmeat with exports of over €7m.