Ornua - formerly the Irish Dairy Board - is responsible for the sale and distribution of Kerrygold brands across the United States (US).

The Irish Farmers Journal had the opportunity to meet with some of the team in Chicago this year and it was with envy I looked on at this highly professional organisation which had funds, a clear plan for sales, a near $1bn food business and being responsible for the number one butter brand in the US.

The number one butter brand in the US is no mean feat. Of all the butter sold in the US, one in four purchases are Kerrygold.

So Irish farmers’ milk from co-ops is being processed by Ornua. It has a unique taste. Ornua then takes that great taste and the story behind the butter and the Irish farmer and markets it through TV, social media and many other offerings.

Market

At this stage, tillage farmers are probably complaining that feed is imported into the country to produce the product, but the reality is in grass-fed production 90% of the animals’ diets have to be grass, whether that’s fresh grass or grass silage and only 10% can be concentrates.

I would normally say the whole product should be Irish-fed instead of grass-fed, but, in reality, it's not the market to target.

Kerrygold has a huge market now, built on grass-fed. Maybe there is another market opportunity with Irish-fed.

Maybe if there was an Irish-fed beef brand or a separate Irish-fed dairy brand.

Yes, we would prefer if all those ingredients were Irish, but, in reality, we have a limited amount of Irish grain and wouldn’t it be better if, instead of selling grain for animal feed - which is the lowest-value grain to sell - we were selling our own high-value product for Irish drinks or grain for animal feed for a value-added meat or dairy product that could be sold at a higher cost due to the premium down the line.

Similar

So why can’t tillage farmers have something similar to Ornua? Is there space for another maltings in Ireland?

Can we have Irish malt produced from Irish farmers producing Irish farmers’ whiskey and beer? Can the co-ops come together to market an Irish farmer whiskey brand?

In the meantime, someone in the tillage sector needs to at least start to talk to people such as those in Ornua and advertise our goods.

At the minute, there is spreadable Irish butter on sale in the US with olive oil added. We have plenty of fields of gold growing around Ireland with oilseed rape.

Could oilseed rape from the same Irish co-ops working with Ornua not be used by Kerrygold?