Tourism opportunity on a plate

Having ploughed a lonely furrow with Good Food Ireland, Margaret Jeffares's original vision for local produce has become well rooted, writes ALISON HEALY

TEN YEARS AGO Bertie Ahern declared that the boom was getting boomier. In the same year, Margaret Jeffares set up the Good Food Ireland brand.

She had been working in tourism marketing for more than 20 years and saw how Irish restaurants and hotels were getting no kudos for using local produce.

“I saw a massive need for linking agriculture and hospitality together. Hotels and restaurants were crying out for recognition for that commitment to using local food,” she says. “Where was the competitive advantage for the restaurant sourcing local produce over a restaurant down the road that was using imported chicken fillets?”

She decided to set up an all-island umbrella brand for people promoting local produce, with strict criteria based on the philosophy of sourcing local food. “It was a no-brainer for me in the end. If I can drive business into a hospitality sector that’s committed to local food, the hospitality sector will go out to the farmers and buy more Irish food and then more unexplored opportunities will develop for the farmers.”

Before making the leap, she sought the opinion of her father, a Clare farmer. “He said you’re going to need a recession for people to go back to their roots. At the time it went over my head but I can see it now, how everyone has come back to appreciate local food.”

There is now a national obsession with food and its origins, but at the height of the boom people laughed at her plan to focus on local produce and make Ireland a food-tourism destination.

“It was so pioneering that people were saying to me: ‘Margaret, who really cares whether the food is local or not?’” she recalls. “International tour operators were saying: ‘But you don’t have good food in Ireland’. International consumers were saying: “What have you got in Ireland only bacon and cabbage?”

“They overwhelmingly agreed that the reputation for Ireland as a food producer was very, very good but what we didn’t seem to have was a reputation for our cuisine.”

So Jeffares ploughed a lonely furrow at first, setting up the Good Food Ireland limited company, at home on a farm in Wexford with €50,000 of her own money. Today, she has more than 520 members, including hotels, BBs, pubs, restaurants, cafes, cookery schools, food shops and producers.

“As well as meeting the food-sourcing criteria, they all have to operate at a level that is classed ‘best of their type’,” she says. Household names such as Darina Allen, Derry Clarke and Catherine Fulvio support the brand.

The organisation runs workshops and conferences, helping members to market themselves and linking restaurants and hotels with local producers. “So if someone calls up and says: ‘I want to start using free-range eggs. Where can I get them?’ Or, ‘where can I get Irish rapeseed oil?’ we can tell them.”

Members are only accepted after independent inspection to ensure they meet the standards. “Today, the business is mainly supported by membership and sponsorship,” she says. Members pay anything from €450 to €5,000 depending on the size and product type.

She has also received marketing funding from Fáilte Ireland. And she has attracted support from bodies such as Tourism Ireland, Bord Bia, the Irish Dairy Board and Ulster Bank.

Jeffares says she could have 10 times the number of members without the rigorous inspection process, but she could not offer the consumer guarantee of the best quality produce.

Good Food Ireland members followed the last Volvo Ocean Race around the world, feeding the crew of the Green Dragon in every port. “We shipped all the Irish food overseas. We weren’t going to make Irish stew out of South African ingredients. So everything to the core was about authenticity. We brought apples and onions to South Africa. There’s nothing wrong with South African apples but they’re not Irish apples.”

It all sounds very laudable but how do you gauge the success of an initiative like this? Good Food Ireland recently commissioned Grant Thornton to do exactly that. Its survey of GFI members found that 92 per cent had increased their purchasing of Irish food over the last three years. That spend contributed an estimated €50 million to the economy.

More than 70 per cent said their involvement with the brand had increased their profile or heightened their awareness of sourcing local food.

“So it completely has proven my original vision . . . that if we market food tourism around a brand standard we will grow a massive economic opportunity for the industry and for the country in general. Can you imagine how important this would be if it were done on a massive scale?”

She says the Government agencies should take this idea to the next level. “They should go out with an international strategy to develop Ireland as a food-tourism destination.”

While the hospitality industry has suffered in the recession, four out of five Good Food Ireland members expect continued growth this year. “Now that is completely contrary to any international financial indication for Irish business so it just shows there is an opportunity for food in tourism.”

Her next project is a second GFI website for consumers, complete with an online food shop in September. It will be launched in New York, London, Belfast and Dublin. “It will be all about planning your food trip. It will inspire food trails and tours, so if you want to go to Galway for a foodie weekend or you are going racing and want to stay somewhere that you know will have a good breakfast and dinner, the website will give you the options,” Jeffares says. It will also include recipes and tips on what’s in season and where to buy it.

Jeffares says every food business in Ireland could come under her brand. “But they might not be ready yet with regards to the standards and criteria. We have everything from the luxurious five-star hotel to the fabulous little coffee shop on the side of the road between Dublin and Limerick. It’s a very exciting time for the business.”

Good food ireland the numbers 

522 members who employ more than

5,900 people 

Members had a turnover of €390 million last year 

24 per cent are exporting produce and 17 per cent have plans to do so 

80 per cent expect growth in earnings this year 

92 per cent increased their spend on

Irish produce in the last three years

Source: Food – The Secret Ingredient to Irish Tourism and Export Growth by Grant Thornton