Following three days of visits to over 100 food industry sites in Ireland including farms and factories, over 400 members of the international food industry from all around the world again gathered in the Convention Centre Dublin today for Bord Bia’s Marketplace 2015 event.
The international buyers, along with 150 Irish food and drink buyers and food service operators met with 185 Irish food and drink companies, ranging in size from small businesses to multinational companies, during over 5,000 pre-scheduled ‘speed-dating’ style meetings taking place throughout today.
Along with a strong presence of buyers from the UK and Europe, 106 Asian buyers have travelled to the event, up from just 14 who attended in 2012 at the last Bord Bia Marketplace event. There were also attendees from the Middle East (38), North America (24), Africa (15) and Russia (12).
According to Bord Bia, there was a 16% increase in trade to stand at €3 billion, or 29% of Ireland’s food and drinks exports.
In addition to the overseas buyers, there will be a strong representation of domestic buyers present including Aldi, Dunnes, Lidl, Musgraves, Tesco Ireland.
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Hannah Popham.