This week’s Bord Bia trade mission to Japan and South Korea comes at an opportune time in terms of increasing Irish meat and dairy product exports to the regions.

The signing of the Japan EU economic partnership agreement (JEEPA) will see a reduction of tariffs on meat and dairy products over the coming years, which will help to increase exporting opportunities.

Meat promotion campaign

It also comes as Bord Bia commences an 'Enjoy it’s from Europe' campaign, promoting beef and pigment in Korea and Japan and opening up the market potential of 178 million consumers.

Speaking at the launch of the trade mission on Monday 10 June, Irish ambassador to Japan Paul Kavanagh told Irish companies to “make sure that Japanese customers and buyers realise Ireland’s commitment to its membership of the European Union".

Brexit is perceived as a huge negative from a government and business point of view in Japan

"Because of Ireland’s EU membership, Ireland is a stable, safe, secure and predictable market to do business with. These are all very important attributes for Japanese people.

“In Japan, there is no such thing as a good surprise and few things in Japanese business carry such negative attributes as instability and unpredictability.

"Brexit is perceived as a huge negative from a government and business point of view in Japan and they don’t mind saying that.”

What is JEEPA?

JEEPA will see Japan remove its tariffs on EU goods of up to 30% on cheese, up to 20% on pork and 15% on wine, phased out over 10 years.

It will also see the beef tariff reduce from a base of 38.5% to 9% by 2033.

The agreement was signed at the EU-Japan summit in Tokyo in July 2018 and is the biggest and most advanced bilateral trade deal ever negotiated by the European Union, covering 600 million people and a third of global GDP.

Current Japanese imports from Ireland

Japan has a population of 126.8 million people and with a growing affluent population, export opportunities are increasing.

In 2018, Ireland supplied a total of 15,647t of beef and pork to Japan, comprising of 765t of beef offal, 67t of fresh and frozen beef, and 14,805t of pork, which was less than 0.6% of total demand.

Travelling party

Many of Ireland’s heavy hitters in the beef business are in Japan for the trade mission, including representatives from ABP, Kepak, Dawn Meats, Liffey Meats, Foyle Food Group, QK Meats, Staunton Foods and John Stone.

The dairy industry is also well represented, with Glanbia, Carbery, Dairygold, Dansko, Tipperary Co-Op, Ornua and Kerry all part of the travelling group.

Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed will host a flavours of Ireland reception in Tokyo tomorrow evening.