Commissioner Hogan kicked off the week-long EU business delegation visit to China and Japan today with an opening address to the European Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC) workshop in Shanghai. The event is themed “Doing business and investing in China” and involved the Chamber giving an outline of what is needed, plus individual companies sharing their own experience.

With a focus on agriculture, food and beverages, the branding for the mission is “Tastes of Europe”. Exports European agri-food products to China surged by 39% from 2014 levels in 2015 reaching €10.3bn. China is a major market for the EU’s dairy and pigmeat industries and is Ireland’s second-largest customer for each of these after the UK.

Irish dairy companies Ornua and Glanbia as well as Bord Bia are participating in this week’s trip.

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The mission is spending two days in Shanghai before moving to Beijing late Sunday and on to Tokyo in Japan on Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening event, Commissioner Hogan complimented the work of the EUCCC, saying that with 1,600 members built up over the past 15 years, it is the recognised voice of the EU in China. He also remarked that patience was required in building relationships with China in advance of doing business.

Great expectations for beef exports

Aside from the importance of the Chinese market for Irish dairy and pigmeat products, there are also great expectations for beef sales if approval could be finalised. China lifted its BSE export ban on Ireland in February 2015, but despite a series of visits and inspections since then, Irish beef has not yet been approved for export to China.

This is expected to happen before the end of this year and Irish companies are confident of being able to do substantial business quickly once approval is obtained. If this were to happen, it would be welcome news for Irish beef and suckler farmers who have had nothing but negative news on trade agreements recently, particularly the Mercosur threat and risk of a Brexit vote in June.

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