During a St. Patrick's Day visit to Rome today, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney T.D. took time out to launch an Irish beef promotion at a leading Italian retail store.
Accompanied by Bord Bia Chief Executive, Aidan Cotter, Minister Coveney visited the Carrefour Italia Gourmet store on Piazza Morelli, for a promotion and tasting of Irish Hereford Beef and meeting with ‘Carrefour Italia’ Buying Director, Giovanni Panzeri.
Following Bord Bia’s involvement in the successful television show, MasterChef Italy in 2014, ‘Carrefour Italia’ chose to stock Irish Hereford Prime in their stores, launching an Irish Hereford premium beef range across three hypermarkets in Milan. Since March 2014, the retailer has extended this to 100 stores, with Irish Hereford beef now present in stores from Milan to Sicily.
To build awareness of the new product range, in 2014, Bord Bia Milan coordinated over 110 days of in-store promotions with Carrefour, promoting Irish beef directly to more than 35,000 Italian consumers and increasing sales by 50 per cent in targeted stores.
Speaking from Rome today, Minister Coveney said: “It is a pleasure to be in Italy promoting sustainably produced Irish Beef. International trade has been the key driver of our economic recovery and the agri-food sector has played a significant part in this. This year, Bord Bia will invest €3.5m across an integrated marketing communications programme to continue to raise awareness and understanding of the Origin Green programme, targeting key customers of Irish food and drink in Europe. As an exporting nation, our international markets are key to the long-term sustainability of our beef sector”.
Aidan Cotter added: “Bord Bia values the support of the Minister in increasing the awareness of Irish beef here in Rome. Italy represents an important market for Irish food and drink exports. In 2014, Italy was our third-largest export destination for Irish beef, after the UK and France. We exported approximately 47,000 tonnes of Irish beef to Italy, accounting for almost 20 per cent of total exports to Continental Europe. It is the main export product and accounts for 60 per cent of Ireland’s exports to Italy, with a value of €184m”.
With just 51 per cent self-sufficiency in beef supply, Italy is the largest importer of beef in the European Union, taking in 400,000 tonnes of beef annually. Based on 2014 figures, Irish beef accounts for almost 12 per cent of Italy’s beef import requirement.
Part of the French supermarket chain, Carrefour, ‘Carrefour Italia’ is part of has 1,220 stores in Italy and recorded sales of $7.1bn in Italy in 2013.
Notes to the Editor:
Carrefour:
‘Carrefour Italia’ entered into the Italian market in 1993. Carrefour owns 100 per cent of ‘Carrefour Italia’. In Italy,Carrefour has a leading position, operating a multi-format, single-brand strategy, but not including discount stores. Carrefour is focusing its efforts on its core activities in the north of the country, having closed or sold some hypermarkets in southern Italy to address underperformance in that region. Carrefour has 1,220 stores in Italy and a total number of 10,479 stores around the world (Planet Retail, 2014). Carrefour recorded sales of $7.1bn in Italy in 2013.
Irish beef exports to Italy
A decrease in prices of Irish cattle made the Irish beef offering more competitive on the Italian market in 2014. As Italy is a deficit producer of beef, Ireland is well placed to consolidate and grow its market position. Nonetheless, the market is extremely competitive and price sensitive. France is Ireland’smain competitor for quality imported beef but there is growing competition in the market from Poland and Germany.
Economic conditions in Italy have been challenging for a number of years and tough measures have been brought in to tackle debt levels. The south has been hit more strongly by the recession than the north, due to high unemployment levels there. This has led to lifestyle changes in some cases, with a decrease in red meat consumption from 22.8kg in 2012 to 20.2kg in 2014 per capita.
Although Italians still prefer to buy meat at their local traditional butcher, large retailers’ share in total beef sales has been increasing gradually to about 65% vs 35% in the butcher channel. Irish beef has a long presence on the market and is currently sold in each of the top five Italian retailers under a variety of different brands. 60% of Irish beef is sold through retail vs 40% sold through foodservice channels.
Retail promotions – Irish Beef Tastings Truck Tour
Bord Bia supports the Irish Hereford product range as well as Carrefour through in-store promotions, distribution of brochures on grass-based production in Ireland, show cooking demonstrations with Chefs, and tastings to increase awareness of Irish premium beef. Included in Bord Bia’s tastings with Carrefour was a tasting promotional campaign which took place from November to the end of December, 2014 and included Carrefour stores and Metro Cash & Carry. A brand truck was used to travel to different stores around Italy. The truck was equipped with a chef, promoter and a kitchen.
The Chefs’ Irish Beef Club (CIBC):
Bord Bia's Chefs' Irish Beef Club has been running across Europe since 2004 and there are now more than 80 Michelin Star equivalent level chefs among its members. Through various high-profile events, these chefs provide a positive endorsement and publicity for premium Irish Beef in each of their markets. Chefs are invited to Ireland in order to see the Irish beef production system for themselves and in order to encourage them to other high quality meat, dairy, seafood, beverage and food products.
Bord Bia's Italian CIBC was launched in Osteria della Brugheria, Bergamo on March 24th 2014. The launch event featured 12 Michelin Star chefs.
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Origin Green is our bold promise to the world: that Ireland will be a leading source of sustainably produced food and drink.
Every day we are making good on that promise . . . and today 70% of our exports are on an independently verified journey of sustainability. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akY3mzIfU2M>