Charm offensive in Saudi Arabia

The return of Irish chilled beef exports to Saudi Arabia appeared a little closer yesterday when President McAleese, Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland combined in a charm offensive on the President's last day in the kingdom.

In a speech to a business breakfast in Riyadh attended by the head of food safety with the Saudi ministry of commerce, the President said Ireland looked forward to the reappearance of Irish beef in Saudi in the near future.

The presence of the head of food safety was regarded as a hopeful sign by officials who have been working on retrieving the market since European beef was banned by Saudi and the Gulf states as a result of BSE five years ago.

In 2000, the trade was worth €100 million a year to Ireland and amounted to over 50 per cent of the beef market.

Some 250 people, including some of Saudi's "top decision makers", attended the breakfast, at which up to 40 Irish companies were represented, said Gerry Murphy of Enterprise Ireland.

Irish exports increased by around 14 per cent last year and the President noted that with Saudi Arabia investing heavily in IT infrastructure, there is substantial potential for Irish companies there in process control and automation, construction, oil and gas sectors, engineering services and third level education.

In 2005, 60 per cent of the approximately €300 million worth of Irish exports to Saudi Arabia was food, mainly in the form of infant milk formula.

While the Irish contingent was not inclined to gloat over the Danes' troubles across the Muslim world - "there but for the grace of God go we", said one - the reality is that the sudden collapse of much of the Danes's half €500 million dairy market in the region has left a vacuum to be filled.

Owen Brooks of Bord Bia noted that while it would "certainly" take some time for Denmark to resume business as usual, Australia and New Zealand would find it easier to fill the gaps in the short term because of the difficulty in "turning on" milk supplies in Ireland, due to EU quotas and the fact that we are in the winter season.

Meanwhile, Riverdeep Interactive Learning - which is probably the biggest supplier of e-learning software in the world - announced that it has entered into a joint venture with the large Saudi publishing and packaging company, Obeikan Investment Group.