Bord Bia set to sell beefed-up view of good life

The Food Board's new chief has big plans, writes Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent

The new philosophy that "the good life" in the future will be better lived by doing things than having things is music to the ears of the new Chief Executive of An Bord Bia.

Mr Aidan Cotter won the top job in the 10-year-old national food-promotion organisation on July 12th and he believes the redefinition of the good life presents huge opportunities to the food industry here.

"Doing things" means "eating out and travelling and experiencing things", he says.

"People want to eat out and eat well at home and those companies who can compete with products that have authenticity will benefit."

The Glanworth, Co Cork-born agricultural economics expert agrees with the two US psychologists who have come up with the theory and thinks that in the developed world we are moving past the acquisitional stage of development to one of seeking experiences.

For that reason, he believes Ireland must focus on the more developed countries when it comes to marketing our food and drink products.

He says commodity traders out of Ireland are coming under increasing pressure from Latin America and Asia.

"We cannot compete with low-cost regions in commodity markets.

"We have the ability to produce science-based foods to meet the criteria demanded by consumers. Agriculture is, after all, our sole significant indigenous sector," he says.

The Irish Food Industry, he believes, will have to plough a lot more money into research and development to find new products.

Those who see the Bord Bia chief pounding the pavements around his south Dublin home in his running gear at least five nights a week will understand how he could come to such a conclusion.

He runs at least five miles a day in "order to keep fit to do the job" and to relax. It is not, he said, a competitive thing.

However, according to those who know him, Mr Cotter is well able to take competition.

He has held down some of the most difficult jobs in the food marketing boards over the past 24 years.

Mr Cotter is taking over Bord Bia at a time of enormous change both on farms and in the processing industry.

The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, which has broken the link between production and farm supports, has meant that farmers will in future have to take their profits from the marketplace. "We are at the cutting edge now and we know it. Farmers cannot farm for subsidies any more and that means that the Food Board will have to be the hammer head for marketing," he says.

Farmers, who pay 20 per cent of the Bord Bia €26 million budget in levies, have in the past found great difficulty in linking the antics of the marketing men and women with what they do.

Mr Cotter, who was born on a small farm in north Cork 52 years ago, believes that the success of the board's work over a decade has dispelled all such difficulties.

One of his strengths is that the stocky Corkman, who has been the board's representative both in Germany and London, has not forgotten how to milk a cow.

"I think the farmers realise now that their future lies in the marketplace and they need to invest in that to make progress," he says.

"We have to manage the future in partnership with industry."

His self-confessed idealism and commitment to the agri-food industry brought him into a sector in which he has remained all his working life.

He worked first for CBF, the livestock and meat board, and headed its Dusseldorf offices in Germany from 1984 to 1988.

He moved away from Germany "as the Wall was coming down" and took over the London office at one of the most difficult times for Irish marketeers.

He recalled the "heartbreak" of having Irish beef promotions ready or running and then seeing them wiped out by the IRA bombing campaigns in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"You were as good as the last bomb. You would start building up something and preparing a promotion and then it would be suddenly cancelled," he said.

Beef could not be marketed as Irish in the British supermarkets in the early days of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Beef had another enemy too, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), and Cotter needed all the avoidance skills learned as a hurler in St Colman's College, Fermoy, to avoid a total wipeout of Irish beef sales in the UK.

In March 1996, Irish branded beef was about to be launched in Britain when an announcement linking BSE with a human form of the disease, vCJD was announced in the House of Commons.Despite all the scares and setbacks, he says, the image of beef has never been so good.

"No one worked harder than Aidan to sell Irish beef in Britain at what must have been the most difficult time of all," said an ex-colleague.

"He has tremendous energy and, unlike many people with energy, he is a gentle man. He tends not to fuss, even though he can get quite nervous at times but just about getting things right," added another colleague.

However, he is taking over the job at a time when beef is at last becoming respectable again and is now being included in the new "health and wellness" food.

"Things like the Atkins diet has rehabilitated beef and there have been amazing changes in such a short period of time," he says.

Like others in the industry, he believes that the BSE scares have been a catalyst in getting Ireland to where it is today, the largest beef exporter in the Northern hemisphere.

He has a great admiration for the marketing skills of the Irish, which last year saw Irish food and drinks exports rise to €6.7 billion last year.

And he is firm in his belief that an industry which has met so many challenges and has adapted so well to change, can continue to do so given the right kind of leadership.

"We have the skills, we have the knowledge and we have the products so we can get on with it," he says.

Factfile

Name: Aidan Cotter.

Age: 52

Position: Chief executive, Bord Bia.

Background: Holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management in the UK and has Master's degrees in Economic Science and Agricultural Economics from University College Dublin. Has been involved in marketing Irish food since the early 1980s and has 12 years' experience working in overseas marketing with CBF and Bord Bia, where he was director of operations before his appointment.

Family: Married to Joan with two daughters, Karina (18) and Fiona (15), and a son, James (13).

Why he is in the news: He has confirmed the highest level ever of beef exports to the British market, 250,000 tonnes.