THE TAOISEACH says the Government would support an umbrella brand for all Irish food and drinks products for marketing abroad.
“Anything that will assist in the marketing and adding value to Irish products will be supported by Government and the State agencies,” Brian Cowen said yesterday.
“It is really a question of trying to address the fragmentation in the industry that needs to be addressed and consolidation needs to be considered and how we can come forward with scale, innovation and efficiency.”
A national branding scheme has been put forward in a Bord Bia-commissioned report to assess export opportunities for the food and drinks industry by experts Mary Shelman and David Bell of the Harvard Business School.
The two, along with Mr Cowen, attended a Bord Bia-organised “food and drink” summit at Farmleigh yesterday.
Their report, based on interviews with chief executives of a large number of Irish companies identified fragmentation, lack of consumer orientation and low confidence in the future as major problems to be overcome.
They found Ireland had an inefficient production system which lacking scale, capital and readiness to adopt better technologies.
Mr Cowen said every industry needed a vision to work towards, particularly in such hugely challenging times.