Industry & Business

Bord Bia is increasing its investment in the German food and beverage market as Irish exporters continue to look outside the traditional UK market to build business. Speaking recently at ANUGA, the biggest food fair in the world, where a record 34 Irish companies exhibited, the CEO Tara McCarthy outlined the strategic importance of the market and its geography.

Tara McCarthy.

“Irish food and drink exports to Germany performed impressively in the first half of 2017 with a year-on-year increase of 24%, driven by significant growth in dairy, sheepmeat, horticulture, seafood, prepared foods and beverages. It is a premium market, our sixth largest, with an estimated value of €600 million last year. Sustainably produced food is increasingly sought by German consumers and we are offering our customers a solution to this demand through our Origin Green programme.

“We are investing further in the market and we have identified a number of initiatives particular to the region to be funded under the recent Brexit allocation from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.”

The German grocery retail market was worth €234 billion in 2016 and is forecast to be worth €259 billion by 2021, a growth rate of 10.5% (IGD Retail Analysis, 2017). The market is highly competitive and consolidated, with the largest operators accounting for around 85% of total sales.

Bord Bia has committed considerable time and resources to the German market to exploit its potential for Irish food and drink exporters. It is Ireland’s sixth largest export market for food and drink with an estimated export value of €600m for 2016.

Export performance to date for 2017 has been very strong (up 24%), driven by increases in Dairy and Prepared Foods. Significant increases have also been recorded for sheepmeat (+14%), seafood (+26%), pigmeat (+19%), edible horticulture (+25%) and beverages (+9%).

Private label penetration is also one of the highest in Europe at approximately 45% with increased focus on tiered private label ranges and private label extension into niches such as organic, vegan, and vegetarian and ready meals.

Post Brexit initiatives in the German Market

Bord Bia’s Brexit response initiatives are concentrating on the following areas:

• Consumer, customer and market Insights:to understand better the consumers in Germany specially and also the rest of Europe and in South East Asia and China.
• Route to market: Developing tools for exporters to support Bord Bia`s new enhanced strategic marketing process. Marketing and business development activities and “Feet on the Street” to retain expertise on the ground in emerging markets to help Irish exporters identify potential opportunities.
• Origin Green: Developing Insight to understand further the resonance of Origin Green and sustainability in target markets and in promotions.

Irish Beef Promotion

Irish beef continues to perform in what is an important premium market, with beef exports rising to €142 million in 2016 from €92 million just four years ago. The new Brexit initiative will include concept and strategy development planning for promotion activity from 2018 and beyond, including existing material developed for the German market. The campaign commenced this year with five retail promotions in over 2,000 stores and a series of promotions with leading steak restaurant chains across 50 locations. In addition, Bord Bia is organising trade, consumer, food blogger and journalists visits to Ireland to gain a first-hand experience and understanding of Irish beef. It will include online promotion and advertising, driving traffic to Bord Bia’s new German website to be launched tomorrow at ANUGA (Monday, 9th October). Consumers will be directed to a website where they can engage with Irish farmers on farming methods and Irish beef production. The campaign narrative focusses on the work and lives of real Irish beef farmers. www.irishbeef.de 

This campaign follows comprehensive consumer research in the German market and a highly encouraging performance by industry. According to Bord Bia’s CEO: “The research found that there is a huge interest among German consumers around the topics of food sustainability, origin and animal welfare. Ireland as a food producing nation was viewed favourably and the image of our food production system is one that is pure, green and natural where animals freely graze on green pastures.”

Irish Lamb Promotion

Bord Bia has renewed its focus on promoting Irish lamb in Germany, which traditionally has a low consumption per capita of lamb but with strong growth potential. The success of Irish lamb exports in recent years has been underpinned by promotional work done in market, including in-store retail promotions, tastings, retailer and foodservice customer trade fair support and brand building through inward journalist and blogger visits. To build on the success in-market, Bord Bia will be launching a new digital home for Irish lamb in Germany www.irishlamb.de This launch will coincide with the busy Christmas period, which sees a large increase in lamb consumption in Germany every year.

Identifying German Opportunities for Private Label Suppliers

Tara McCarthy highlighted the opportunities for private label partnerships in Germany: “We want to unlock opportunities by matching Irish suppliers to suitable retailer accounts and to enable growth for Irish food and drink companies and those German retailers.  The research will deliver an understanding of Private Label in key retailers and focus on 10 food categories.”

Some 45% of retail sales in the German market are through private label and it continues to grow. This project will build on Bord Bia’s European Private Label programme involving 21 Irish companies and the successful model previously used to conduct category research across 6 categories in three markets. The research funded under the Brexit initiative will now focus on 10 categories to identify Private Label opportunities for the German market. These categories are Yoghurt, Frozen value-added chicken, Ice-cream and Frozen desserts, Functional meal replacements/super foods, Chocolate and Frozen pizzas / pies.

Earlier Consumer Insight from Bord Bia into Private Label opportunities in Germany and the Netherlands revealed potential for growth in each of these markets whether through exploiting growth in a particular category or offering innovative solutions to boost retailers` business through providing choice and innovation to their customers within a category.