With 21 Michelin star Japanese chefs in France and 2,500 sushi or Japanese themed restaurants and food corners, the sector offers potential for exporting high quality seafood, especially raw fish. The versatile nature of sushi: quick to prepare, its healthy and nutritious image, makes it suitable for several food service formats such as full service restaurant, fast food, take away, delivery service or as a corner concept in retail stores.
France is a major market for Irish organic salmon, accounting for 50% of all salmon exports. It was the first seafood to obtain organic status in France in 2001. Since certification Irish organic salmon and latterly Irish organic mussels have achieved a high level of awareness in the French market differentiating the products in a way that would have been difficult to achieve otherwise. One of the main benefits of organic salmon is its excellent nutritional profile with a high level of omega 3.
The French market consumes almost the entire range of Irish seafood: crustaceans, molluscs, whitefish and salmon and is therefore a crucial market particularly for high value species such as salmon, lobster, crab, prawns, oysters but also whelk, mussels and periwinkles. The outlook for 2017 is positive with salmon prices remaining firm throughout 2016 as of low production growth and strong international demand.
Overall Global seafood exports from Ireland to France recorded further growth in 2015, rising by an estimated 6% to reach €570 million. This reflects an increase of 9% in average export prices, which more than offset a drop of 3% in volumes. The rise in unit prices demonstrates the on-going strength in demand for seafood. France remains by far the largest export market for Irish seafood representing 23% of our exports for a value of €130 million. In 2015 exports to France grew by 6% in value against a unit price increase of 8%.