Irish food products seek to widen market appeal at Berlin food fair

When Germany's Agriculture Minister, Mr Karl-Heinz Funke, visited the Green Week in Berlin last month, he started the morning with a glass of Polish sparkling wine. Then he drank a stomach-settling Jaegermeister, a beer, some German wine and a generous bowl of sake.

But the minister could not leave the world's biggest food fair without visiting the Irish stand - and polishing off a pint of Guinness.

Irish food and drink exporters have been coming to Green Week for 27 years and the Irish stand has long been one of the most popular at the fair. This year's Irish stand was, however, remarkably modest, comprising just two pubs, a steak bar and a small Irish food shop.

"Berlin has evolved and Ireland has evolved during the course of the 1990s," explains Ms Louise Coughlan of Bord Bia in Germany.

"In the early 1990s, after the wall came down, Berlin was booming. Suddenly there was a surge of customers that had to be convinced about what Ireland had to offer. So the Irish presence at Green Week was very important. Over the past number of years, things have changed dramatically."

Berlin has seen unemployment rise, incomes fall and the mood of economic optimism that followed German unification has long since evaporated. Attendances at Green Week have fallen too, from a high point of more than half a million people in the mid-1990s to just over 450,000 this year.

But the Green Week remains an important showcase for the food industry and Bord Bia is determined to maintain an Irish presence at the fair. Ms Coughlan acknowledges that Ireland's stand in Berlin is now more representative than narrowly commercial.

"Our main focus here is to maintain our focus on our meat and that's been particularly so over the last few years. We want to show the difference between Britain and Ireland where beef is concerned and to show consumers that we're still here, we still have a quality product and we're not going to back out," she said.

Irish beef exports to Germany collapsed in the wake of the BSE scandal from a high of 25,000 tonnes in mid-1990s to just 2,000 tonnes last year. During the early 1990s, Irish beef was marketed successfully as a high quality product and big supermarket chains such as Meyer sold Irish beef as a premium product.

The BSE scandal accelerated a trend away from red meat in Germany and the recovery in sales has been dominated by German beef. Even Argentinian beef imports, which have never been tainted by BSE, are significantly lower than in the early 1990s.

Despite Bord Bia's best efforts, there is little prospect of an improvement in Irish beef sales to Germany in the immediate future. But other meats, especially lamb and pork, offer a better prospect of success.

Germans consume more pig-meat than any other nation in Europe and, although German pig farmers increased production by more than six per cent last year, Irish pork and bacon sales grew, mainly through the supply of high value chilled and frozen cuts.

Although Germans traditionally eat little lamb, Irish exporters have successfully targeted Germany's two million Turkish immigrants, for whom lamb is a staple.

Bord Bia is planning a major marketing offensive for Irish lamb in Germany, alongside its continuing efforts to maintain a profile for Irish beef.

Despite the problems experienced by the meat industry, Irish food and drink exports were worth more than £260 million (€330 million) last year. Dairy products account for 40 per cent of the total and Kerrygold butter is available in almost every supermarket in Germany.

German supermarkets are somewhat old-fashioned by Irish and British standards, with the top five retailers controlling 40 per cent of sales. Price sensitivity and high marketing support costs make Germany a difficult market to penetrate with a new product.

Not only is price the main selling tool to customers, distributors are often obliged to pay "hello money" to secure supermarket shelf space. Bord Bia is targeting the area of private labels, a relatively uncrowded field in Germany where Irish manufacturers can avoid some of the pitfalls of a conventional entry into the retail market. "Germany is a difficult and challenging market and companies must enter it for the long haul, but if you succeed, the rewards are enormous," she said.