"Irish" Products No Longer Made Here.

brightspark wrote: »

In fairness to Boyne Valley the problem is a lack of supply here. Perhaps we need more beekeepers

Apparently the last year has seen a massive boom in people attending bee keeping courses in Ireland. Alot of people see it as a good part time job to add extra cash to their income. There was actually a major bee keeping conference on this weekend in Dublin I think.

Mike 1972 wrote: »

How ?

B-O-Y-N-E V-A-L-L-E-Y

Mint Sauce

Unpossible wrote: »

Is anyone else suspicious about all the Aldi products that suddenly have an Irish flag stamped across them? The only information you can find on the back is "This was produced for Aldi <Irish address>, and Aldi <UK address>"
How much was made in Ireland and where in Ireland was it made?

Not sure about food products, but generally only a small percentage of the total production (cant remember the exact figure) has to take place here, then it can be labelled product of/made in Ireland.

cowzerp wrote: »

Druids "celtic" Cider is addressed to Tallaght but is made in Birmingham,
very misleading as its made out to be irish, ps, its cheap and nice too!!

It is actually very nice indeed, but they ain't doing anything wrong , Celtic nation just doesnt include Ireland, just we as consumers make a connection that isn't there. Now if they changed the packaging colours to white, orange and green that would get them into trouble for been misleading. Another example. is Wilson's Fertiliser Free potatoes, I know people who use to buy them because they assumed they were organic, there not they just don't use artificial fertiliser when growing them but they do use pesticides.

B-O-Y-N-E V-A-L-L-E-Y

Also, from their website:

Boyne Valley Honey has brought pure natural honey to Irish families for over 50 years. Our delicious honey is packed in Mell, Drogheda, Co. Louth. In a wonderful coincidence, Mell takes its name from the Irish word for honey – mil and in fact, in old maps of Drogheda, the laneway across from the Boyne Valley Honey Company was called Honey Well lane!

Honey is embedded in the history of the Boyne Valley. In fact, the Boyne Valley Honey Company is situated close to the site of Old Mellifont Abbey. Mellifont Abbey takes its name from Fons Mellis – The Fountain of Honey. It was the first Cistercian Monastery in Ireland founded by St. Malachy in 1142 and the monks at Mellifont were renowned beekeepers. The location of this historic monastery was probably chosen for its suitability for the cultivation of bees.

It gives a nice Irish impression doesn't it?

Mike 1972

maninasia wrote: »

B-O-Y-N-E V-A-L-L-E-Y

/=/ Druids celtic cider ?

Oh druids, in all fairness if you thought that was Irish you have only yourself to blame.

londonbus

ballsymchugh wrote: »

it is the biggest brewery alright. but that's guinness for the rest of the world. guinness is still brewed in dublin for irish and uk market. they closed their british brewery a few years ago.

Thank God. The Guinness brewed at Park Royal, London NW10 wasn't a patch on the stuff from Dublin.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Yogurt is rated at 13.5% so it isn't really food

Chocolate biscuits are 21% and there are other biscuits at 13.5%
Jaffa Cakes are 0%

Didn't McVites have along running battle with the British Revenue to define if the Jaffa Cake was a Cake or a Biscuit to avoid the 21% vat? The Revenue wanted to define it as a biscuit and the jaffa cake is naturally soft under the chocolate. McVites won in the end.

British Revenue defines the difference between the two as:
Biscuits- go soft with age
Cakes- go hard with age

londonbus wrote: »

Thank God. The Guinness brewed at Park Royal, London NW10 wasn't a patch on the stuff from Dublin.[/QUOTE

Was recently in Singapore (live in another Asian country), bought a 4-pack of Guinness in the supermarket. Poured myself a nice glass and knocked it back..'God this Guinness tastes better than usual'...checked the can 'imported from Dublin'. I can confirm the Irish brewed stuff is still the best (they have a brewery in Malaysia also AFAIK, the stuff brewed there has a very slight chicory/coffee taste to it, it's the stuff you'll find in Australia too).

Let's turn this on it's head. This thread points to the tremendous opportunities in Ireland to establish genuine new Irish food brands, 100% Made in Ireland.

irish-stew wrote: »

Not sure about food products, but generally only a small percentage of the total production (cant remember the exact figure) has to take place here, then it can be labelled product of/made in Ireland.

Bedtime reading- 4th one down Labelling of Food in Ireland- 140 odd pages, your answer is in there in detail

http://www.fsai.ie/resources_and_publications/labelling.html

But in short: There is a certain amount of processing that the food product has to undergo before changing its origin, so if you import chicken into Ireland from Brazil, repack it as chicken its still imported and so labelled as brazilian but if you shaped and coated the chicken into chicken nuggets the origin changes to Ireland. There is plans in the EU pipeline to list the country of origin of the major ingredients in a food product but only so much so space on a label.

maninasia wrote: »

Let's turn this on it's head. This thread points to the tremendous opportunities in Ireland to establish genuine new Irish food brands, 100% Made in Ireland.

Not necessarily, the companies left for a reason, consumers are more interested in price than origin right now. About 90% of our produce is exported, its not like there isn't enough Irish food to be had, what you find on the Irish market is the amount of Irish produce we care to consume.

Having said that there is probably room for a chain of Irish grocers, if supermarkets weren't so good at concealing where their fruit and veg comes from it would already be a much more active space IMO.

wonderfulname wrote: »

Not necessarily, the companies left for a reason, consumers are more interested in price than origin right now. About 90% of our produce is exported, its not like there isn't enough Irish food to be had, what you find on the Irish market is the amount of Irish produce we care to consume.

Having said that there is probably room for a chain of Irish grocers, if supermarkets weren't so good at concealing where their fruit and veg comes from it would already be a much more active space IMO.

Actually a very high % of Produce(Fruit & Veg) sourced by the supermarkets is Irish. Surprisely small amount of growers in Ireland produce most of it so the same growers supply up to 3 of the large supermarkets with the same roduct yet the quality is different in each. Down to store training in alot of cases, the grocer is more dedicated and specialist and can do a better job on display of stock. Certain lines like baby veg just dont make sense to produce in Ireland when you can pay peanuts for someone to harvest by hand in Kenya.

The point is 'Irish brand'... there will be a market for quality stuff that is guaranteed to be from point of origin, same phenomenon happening all over the world. You can see it strongly in Asia, the US and the UK and probably starting in Ireland now. Where did you get the 90% of our food is exported?
Also, if food is exported it's even more reason to capitalise on the Irish brand connection.
It's not about competing head-on at mass market, more about building up from a small base. The internet and specality food stores will help to change the game.

maninasia wrote: »

The point is 'Irish brand'... there will be a market for quality stuff that is guaranteed to be from point of origin, same phenomenon happening all over the world. You can see it strongly in Asia, the US and the UK and probably starting in Ireland now. Where did you get the 90% of our food is exported?
Also, if food is exported it's even more reason to capitalise on the Irish brand connection.
It's not about competing head-on at mass market, more about building up from a small base. The internet and specality food stores will help to change the game.

I am not sure about the 90% quoted by the other poster but I know 40% of the cheese sold in the UK is Irish. I don't think the supermarkets that sell it in the UK want to see Irish tricolours over it when most likely the UK consumer thinks its UK:D

What I am talking about is brands here, brands are where the profit and longetivity is. A farmer can brand his own food and sell direct or semi-direct and make 5 times the revenue , especially if he adds a bit of processing and marketing. Consumers are getting much more savvy with food brands and the origin and qualiy of food products.
It makes sense for Irish food producers and suppliers to promote the 'Irishness' in most cases but not all. Even in the UK I would say it is a positive rather than negative overall. While a large amount of cheese sold in the UK is IRish did they make much profit margin from that? It works for large scale enterprises who like big accounts that supermarkets can provide but it drops your profit margin big time.

Companies like Fruitfield generated short-term revenue gain but damaged their brands, new brands with genuine pedigree and better quality product will come in and steal their market share, just watch it happen.

maninasia wrote: »

Where did you get the 90% of our food is exported?

Leaving Cert Ag Science project, can't remember the source. If you look at our farming and consumption habits it makes sense though, we eat British cattle but produce continental breeds, we produce about 700million litres of milk a year, yet we drink about 5million litres (liquid milk, not including other dairy) it certainly isn't all for us.

Edit: I think I may be out a 0 on the liquid milk figure, but 500,000 sounds very low...

londonbus

maninasia wrote: »

The point is 'Irish brand'... there will be a market for quality stuff that is guaranteed to be from point of origin, same phenomenon happening all over the world. You can see it strongly in Asia, the US and the UK and probably starting in Ireland now. Where did you get the 90% of our food is exported?
Also, if food is exported it's even more reason to capitalise on the Irish brand connection.
It's not about competing head-on at mass market, more about building up from a small base. The internet and specality food stores will help to change the game.

Definitely. As said above Irish Cadbury's is much nicer than English Cadbury's. Its the cream that does it...