ASIA BRIEFING:MINISTER FOR Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, last week led Ireland's largest agriculture and food trade mission to China involving 51 companies and 127 individuals active here in sectors ranging from meat, dairy and seafood to beverages, bloodstock and agri-services.

The delegates took in a number of cities during the week, including Hohot, Qingdao, Changchun, Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing.

Very often, the focus during trade visits to China is on the tier-one city, so it was positive to see the delegates getting out to some of the fast-growing but less well-known sites which offer a lot of opportunities for Irish producers.

It is significant to see how much higher Ireland’s profile has become since the visit earlier this year of vice-president and leader- in-waiting Xi Jinping.

His visit to a farm in Sixmilebridge, Co Clare, where James Lynch named a newborn calf after the future leader, has done a lot to put Ireland on the map in China.

Driving on the elevated highway through Shanghai’s glistening array of new skyscrapers, we passed a Lamborghini showroom and a five-storey Mercedes-Benz dealership. The delegates were clearly impressed by the sight of so many seafood restaurants – the further south you get, the more focused people become about eating fish and seafood.

China is a centrally planned economy run by the Communist Party, so government delegations and inter-governmental relations have greater importance here than in countries such as the US, where the focus is more on the private sector.

These kinds of visits, with the presence of a minister, really make a difference in establishing awareness of what a country has to offer.

The general impression among the delegates was that China is a place Ireland can do business with and that the Irish liked the directness of the would-be Chinese clients.

China is a country obsessed with food, and the primary social activity for Chinese is eating together. Food security is a big issue and food is the main component in China’s inflation index. A common greeting in this country is: “Have you eaten?”

After a series of food safety scares in recent years, including the death of a number of infants from tainted infant formula in 2008, there is strong demand for quality food products in China.

“This is a land of opportunity for Irish companies in the agrifood business. There is a massive and growing consumer base and we have a high quality and a safe product to sell,” Coveney says.

Dairy makes up the largest component of Irish exports to China and, within that, infant formula dominates – either produced in Ireland or using milk from Ireland.

The world must produce 70 per cent more food over the next four decades to meet the needs of a growing population, against a backdrop of climate change and with increased pressure on resources.

A big part of this challenge is due to China’s rapid expansion in recent times. In the last two years Ireland’s food exports have expanded by 25 per cent, while Ireland’s food and drink exports to China are more than double what they were three years ago, amounting to nearly €200 million in 2011.

Last year, pork exports were Ireland’s second most important export to China, while Irish seafood is flown several times a week into China’s cities.

Among the Chinese there is a general awareness about what Ireland has to offer. It is known that Ireland exports more than 80 per cent of what it produces and that despite the country’s small size, the dairy industry accounts for more than one-tenth of the world’s output of infant formula. It is also the largest net exporter of beef in the northern hemisphere.

“The week had a strong ending,” Coveney adds. “The political priority was beef access at the start of the week, but beyond this there is a huge opportunity here. It’s all about developing partnerships, and it takes work and time.”

Some members of the delegation were giddy at the opportunities China offers.

“People want to facilitate, it’s all very positive,” Coveney says. “At the start of the week, I was very curious about the opportunities – now I feel the opportunities are very exciting. We need to manage the opportunities properly. Many people said that we have rarely had a trade mission with so many opportunities for food and breeding if you hit the premium market in the right way.”

Aidan Cotter, chief executive officer of An Bord Bia, believes Ireland can become a strategic trading partner of increasing value to China.

“Our industry exports to 170 countries around the world and is committed to expanding our exports by 40 per cent in this decade,” he says. “We have successfully progressed strategic engagement between Ireland’s food industries and their Chinese counterparts. These relationships will continue to be key to delivering shared objectives and enhancing trade. This is not transitory, this will go on.

“Food is one of the most remarkable stories,” Cotter adds, “and China is a most remarkable story, so the two together is a magic opportunity for China.”