Ireland's food and drink exports increased by 1.7 per cent last year to €6.8 billion, Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, reported yesterday.
While there was a dramatic increase in Irish beef exports which were worth €1.19 billion, a 31.4 per cent increase in value, Irish dairy exports decreased by 16.6 per cent to €1.45 billion.
Bord Bia's chief executive Mr Michael Duffy said he was pleased Irish food and drink exports resumed growth in 2002 and he expected to see a continuing growth this year, especially in prepared foods, beef and beverages.
However, he warned that growth in some sectors such as dairy, pigmeat and sheepmeat remained challenging.
The chairman of Bord Bia, Mr Philip Lynch, said despite a number of factors, such as the uncertain economic environment, increased competition and currency appreciation, it was encouraging to see there had been overall growth.
"The positive performance of a number of sectors counterbalanced the difficulties experienced in others.
"I am confident that Bord Bia has the strategy, people and services to assist Irish food and drink companies achieve their growth objectives," he said.
Year-on-year increases were achieved across prepared food, beef, beverages and live animal exports while dairy, pigmeat, sheepmeat, horticulture and the cereal sector exports were down on the previous year.
It also emerged that Britain is again the most important market for Irish food and drink taking 46 per cent of Irish exports.
Continental Europe took 28 per cent and international markets accounted for 26 per cent.
Mr Lynch said the possibility of Britain joining the euro zone would create as many difficulties as advantages for Irish exporters, but he did not expect such a move until after the next British general election.
Meat and livestock and the prepared food sectors accounted for 27 per cent and 26 per cent respectively of total exports.
Dairy accounted for 21 per cent and beverages made up 14 per cent of total exports.
Mr Duffy, who gave the media a breakdown of the sectors, said there had been a major recovery of commercial markets for Irish beef last year.
He said this recovery combined with the absence of any market support scheme, resulted in the volume of Irish beef exports reaching 445,000 tonnes for the year.
The United Kingdom remained the principal market for Irish beef during 2002 as increased consumption levels boosted import demands by 5 per cent, taking 64 per cent of Ireland's beef exports.
He said volumes of exports to continental EU markets recovered by over 50 per cent while shipments to international markets were almost 70 per cent higher.
He said due to price pressure, the dairy exports decreased by 16.6 per cent to a value of €1.45 billion caused by uncertainties over world economic prospects which kept buying activities cautions and at low volume levels.
He said growth in cheese consumption was not as strong as expected, though consumption in Europe continued to rise and would continue to be an important factor for the dairy sector this year.
Mr Duffy predicted there would be some measurable improvement this year with some fluctuations anticipated in the early part of the year.
The Irish beverage sector had an increase of 7.4 per cent with exports reaching €955 million, attributed mainly to the growth in ready-to-drink products.
Mr Duffy predicted a continued growth in cream liqueurs, spirits, bottled water, sport and energy drink exports in the coming year.