Invest Northern Ireland

Bedford Square, Bedford Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland,BT2 7ES.

Tel: 02890 239090

The Northern Ireland Agri Food Sector
The Agri-Food sector in Northern Ireland is one of the most important contributors to the Northern Ireland economy in terms of revenue and employment and is Northern Ireland’s largest manufacturing industry. In 2009 the industry was worth £3.2billion and exports grew by an impressive 27% to £876million (2008).

Nearly two thirds of food and drink from Northern Ireland is now bought by retailers and food service organisations in other parts of the UK and increasingly further afield.
Buyers in virtually all the leading grocery retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Waitrose and Morrisons, now look regularly to Northern Ireland for a broad range of fresh, frozen, chilled and processed products, from fresh meat, dairy and bakery to ready meals, convenience foods. Niche products are also to be found in the food halls at Harrods, Fortnum and Mason, Liberty and Harvey Nichols.

Northern Ireland’s reputation as a source of quality foods is also spreading worldwide. Wal-Mart, Safeway, Carrefour, Auchan, SuperCor, Spinneys, Mercadona are among a growing list of international retailers shopping regularly in the region. Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn is a longstanding customer particularly for beef and lamb from Northern Ireland farms.

The region can point justifiably to a great many success stories – red meat being bought by Europe’s top retailers; cheese and tea going to the US; porridge oats to the Arabian Gulf and Hong Kong; dried fruit and nut snacks to Singapore, Dubai, the Netherlands and Switzerland; pork sausages, health foods and toasted oats to Spain; milk powder to China, Africa and Central America; coffee to the US, Saudi Arabia and North Africa; potato crisps to Australia; and dry cured bacon to Belgium.

About Invest NI (Northern Ireland Naturally)
Invest Northern Ireland, the region’s main economic development agency, has a dedicated Food Division which delivers fully integrated and responsive services to over 300 local food and drink companies including advice on account management, design, product development, packaging, supply chain and productivity.

Practical support schemes range from assistance to export through trade missions and exhibitions and ‘meet the buyer’ events with key buyers in both food retailing and food services to business development programmes including help to companies in achieving essential quality accreditations demanded by major retailers.

Among the most successful initiatives is the Food Sector Marketing Advisers scheme that is helping Northern Ireland companies increase business in GB and international markets.

Four Food Sector Marketing Advisers utilise market knowledge and their network of contacts to assist local companies pinpoint and secure new orders by brokering face-to-face interviews between the companies and food retailers including multiple chains and organisations supplying restaurants, hotels, cafes and canteens. They also
co-ordinate Invest NI’s programme of ‘meet the buyer’ events. These events have brought key buyers from Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, other parts of Europe, the US and India to Northern Ireland for one-to-one meetings with local food companies.

www.buynifood.com – Invest NI’s dedicated food and drink web site features over 200 Northern Ireland food and drink companies across a range of sectors including Baked Goods, Confectionery, Dairy, Dried Goods, Drink, Fish, Food Service Providers, Fresh Produce, Meat and Non Food.

Invest NI’s Food and Drink Sector Tendering Programme and alert service has been designed to encourage and assist local food and drink companies to compete more effectively for substantial public sector contracts in the RoI. As well as business in the Republic and Great Britain, the marketing initiative is now yielding orders from the US.
 

 
C&N Chambers
Situated in Northern Ireland’s premier port, Kilkeel, C&N Chambers supplies quality fresh and frozen fish to the UK and throughout Europe. The company is also represented in the other major fishing ports throughout Ireland.
Product Range includes: Live - Scallops, Brown Crab, Mussels, Langoustines
Fresh/Chilled - All types white fish, King Scallops, Mussels, Brown Crab,
Crab Claws, Langoustines, Velvet Crab
Frozen - Brown Crab, Crab Claws, Langoustines, Velvet Crab
Smoked - Cod, Haddock
Cooked - Brown Crab, Crab Claws, Langoustines, Velvet Crab

C & O Milligan
From their modern well-equipped factory in Ardglass in County Down, C&O Milligan currently exports large volumes of pelagic and other fish species worldwide.
Product Range includes: Fresh/Chilled: Herring-flaps, deli cut (headed and gutted) and whole/ round Mackerel, (headed and gutted), Flaps single fillets, whole/ round Fresh White Fish, Fresh Spratts.

Cuan Sea Fisheries
Cuan is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of live molluscs and specialises in packing live product including fresh/ chilled oysters, cockles, clams and winkles for the retail sector. Since its establishment in 1974, Cuan has gained vast experience in the production and handling of live molluscan shellfish. It pioneered the production, distribution and marketing of pacific oysters in the UK. All Cuan’s sites are class A and situated in Strangford Lough, a marine nature reserve. As a further safeguard, Cuan offers full independent microbiological testing for each batch, both before and after depuration.

Dundrum Bay Oyster Fishery
Dundrum Bay Oyster Fishery was established in 1984 and cultivates oysters and mussels in Dundrum Bay in County Down. Oysters are grown in cages supported on trestles and mussels are re-laid on the seabed where they are allowed to mature. The shellfish are harvested and processed by trained staff in a modern EC approved purification and dispatch centre. Shellfish can be delivered in a range of pack sizes to suit customer requirements. The complete process is strictly controlled to high standards to ensure the customer receives a first class quality product. The business supplies fresh shellfish to the catering and wholesale trade throughout Ireland and Great Britain.

Euro Shellfish (Park Gate Foods)
Euro Shellfish/ Park Gate Foods was established in 1984 and has historically specialised in manufacturing breaded scampi. The modern factory is located at the harbour in Portavogie in County Down.

Euro Shellfish has recently extended its range of breaded products to include new fish and shellfish species. The new range now encompasses the company’s original and popular Portavogie wholetail and breaded Scampi, Breaded Cape Hake Medallions, Breaded Scottish Salmon Medallions, Breaded Scallops and a new scampi line
Peninsula Isle Scampi.

Kilkeel Kippering Co. Ltd
Kilkeel Kippering Co. Ltd. is a family run business that has been in operation since 1977. Since 1994 the company has been producing Herring and Mackerel which is seasonal from approximately August to April. Mackerel is filleted, frozen and shipped throughout Europe. During and mainly out of season the company produces breaded Scampi which is distributed to the UK mainland.

McElroy Fish Exports
Established in 1982 Mc Elroy Fish Export is an independent family owned business. The company sources all its fish from Lough Neagh, the biggest fresh water lake in the British Isles and one of the largest and most productive waters in Europe, producing sustainable stocks. Mc Elroy Fish Export is in the process of expanding the business to cater for larger volumes of course fish, for example roach and bream, which the company plans to export to Eastern Europe.

Northern Salmon Company
Northern Salmon Company Ltd is the sole producer of “Glenarm” Organic Salmon. The fully integrated operation encompasses a fresh water hatchery and two sea sites at Glenarm in County Antrim on the Irish Sea coastline. The re-emergence of the seafood has been a remarkable triumph for the Northern Salmon Company, which saw salmon in its seawater farms totally wiped out by an unprecedented jellyfish invasion in November 2007.

New investors helped get the small company back on its feet and to restock two seawater farms at Glenarm Bay and Red Bay in the cold but invigorating Irish Sea. The new products will be marketed under the Glenarm Organic Salmon brand – the Northern Salmon Company acquired organic status in 2001 – and certified by the influential Organic Food Federation (OFF).

Rockall Seafoods
Rockall Seafoods, based in the port of Kilkeel in County Down was established in 1980 and specialises in the production of breaded and peeled scampi. Using the latest processing equipment, Rockall Seafoods are able to offer products with various coatings that include battered and ovenable scampi. These are supplied throughout the UK and Europe.

Rooney Fish
Established in 1975, Rooney Fish is a family-owned and managed company based in Kilkeel in County Down. Rooney Fish specialises in the processing, cooking, chilling and freezing of fresh whole langoustines, king scallops and white fish such as cod, whiting, monkfish and haddock.

The company, which has offices in France and Italy, operates from one of the industry’s most modern and EC approved processing plants with extensive freezing storage capacity. It sources its shellfish from local fishing fleet, purchasing about 90 per cent of the local catch.

The company has installed new and fully automated cooking machinery that enables it to offer customers new added-value products. Rooney Fish developed the machinery in association with a team of Canadian engineers with vast experience in the shellfish processing industry. The unique cooking system is the only one of its type in operation throughout the global industry.

S & P Milligan
S & P Milligan are processors and exporters of both herring and mackerel. From their factory in Ardglass in County Down, they export to EC countries and beyond.





 

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