Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mr. Brendan Smith TD, yesterday launched Bord Bia’s latest promotion of premium Irish beef in Paris with two major French retailers - Monoprix and Intermarche. Monoprix is the number one premium high-street supermarket in France with a turnover of over €3.5 billion while Intermarché is the 4th largest French multiple retail group serving almost 1,800 outlets.
Minister Smith was in Paris to visit SIAL, the world’s leading biennial food innovation trade show taking place from October 19th to 23rd. Bord Bia is coordinating the participation of eleven Irish food companies at the event, which expects to attract over 140,000 international buyers and 5,300 exhibitors representing 99 countries. Speaking at the launch Minister Smith said “Today’s launch marks significant progress in the drive to differentiate and develop a premium positioning for Irish beef. The new Irish beef range will be promoted in 30 Monoprix stores in Paris and also throughout some 150 Intermarché outlets in France. This is a significant listing for Irish beef as Monoprix attracts on average one million customers per day into its 306 stores”.
The new premium range is clearly identifiable by new on-pack stickers and customised shelf merchandising and will be further supported by a programme of in-store tastings in selected outlets in October and November. Six new beef recipes have been developed, photographed and filmed for podcasting on a new website - www.boeuf-irlandais.com - and an in-store DVD is currently being produced for display on the plasma screens in Monoprix stores.
According to Aidan Cotter, Chief Executive, Bord Bia “With virtually all of our beef exports now destined for European markets, the priority is to differentiate and re-position Irish beef and thereby create a premium image to secure its place on the supermarket shelf in what will be an increasingly competitive marketplace”.
The premiumisation strategy for Irish beef is further enhanced as demand for premium beef in foodservice continues to grow, complementing the drive at retail level, with Irish beef now the preferred choice for a number of French Michelin star chefs.
Last week, Hippopotamus, the leading steak bar chain in France, launched an Irish Angus T-bone steak on its permanent menu. This listing resulted from a successful Irish Angus promotion run by Bord Bia with the chain in November 2007 and the subsequent visit of the Managing Director of Hippopotamus to the European Meat Forum event held in Kilkenny earlier this year. The Hippopotamus chain has over 100 restaurants and is part of the prestigious Groupe Flo restaurant group.
Noreen Lanigan, Manager of Bord Bia, Paris commented “We are focussing on increasing consumer awareness of Irish beef in France as a high quality, differentiated and premium product, in line with Bord Bia’s marketing strategy for Irish beef. The overriding aim is to seek out the highest priced markets and gain access by supplying a superior product on a year round basis, with excellent packaging, presentation and customer service”.
Irish beef exports to France have more than trebled in volume since 2002, to 63,000 tonnes, making it our leading market in Continental Europe. Ireland is in turn one of the top three beef suppliers to France and accounted for 14% of French beef imports last year, based on significant progress building market share in the retail, foodservice and manufacturing sectors.
France is the leading Eurozone market for Irish food and drink products, and is the second largest global market after the UK. Irish food and drink exports to France in 2007 were valued at some €591 million, an increase of 22% on 2004 with significant growth recorded in both meat and dairy sectors.