As he opened the state-of-the-art
library and research facility for Irish food and drinks company in Dublin on Wednesday, Cotter outlined the challenge awaiting his successor after he retires at the end of this year. "As the industry strives to reach the ambitious export target of €19 billion, the goal set by Food Wise 2025, it now requires transformational initiatives to support another step change in export growth," he said.Ireland exported €11bn worth of food and drink in 2015, the result of 50% growth over the past six years, according to Bord Bia figures.
As he opened the state-of-the-art library and research facility for Irish food and drinks company in Dublin on Wednesday, Cotter outlined the challenge awaiting his successor after he retires at the end of this year. "As the industry strives to reach the ambitious export target of €19 billion, the goal set by Food Wise 2025, it now requires transformational initiatives to support another step change in export growth," he said.
Ireland exported €11bn worth of food and drink in 2015, the result of 50% growth over the past six years, according to Bord Bia figures.
All scenarios must envisage growth in all our export markets
"Notwithstanding Brexit, all scenarios must envisage growth in all our export markets," Cotter said.
Reaching the €8bn growth targeted under Food Wise over the coming decade will include efforts to grow exports to historic continental European countries. "At the moment, the only market that's taking more than €1bn is the UK, with €4bn," Cotter told the Irish Farmers Journal. "France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands have the potential to hit the €1bn mark."
He added that reaching 2025 targets would also likely mean "quadrupling exports to Asia".
Cotter explained that these examples were not regional targets but "scenarios to illustrate the scale of what needs to be done over the next 10 years".
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