Northern Irish award winning oysters at global seafood event

Rooney Fish, Northern Ireland's leading seafood business, launched its award-winning oysters among its extensive range of shellfish and other products at the recent Seafood Global Expo, the world's biggest trade show for the international industry.

The oysters attracted the interest of award-winnng chef Rabah Guechoud, based at Brasserie la Lorraine in Paris, and French Champion of the Ecaillers 2017.

Rooney Fish, based at Kilkeel in county Down, owns Ireland's biggest oyster farm, which is located in Carlingford Lough, renowned for its pristine waters. The oysters, raised on the farm at Mill Bay, were listed last year in the Top 50 Foods by the influential UK Guild of Fine Food as among the best-ever tasted by a panel of food experts. They won three-star gold in the Great Taste Awards.

Rooney Fish has also recently launched the award winning oysters in the US and Asia.

The company, in addition, gained the award for export success at the recent Northern Ireland Food Manufacturing Awards.
The family business is already an extensive supplier of shellfish, mussels and crab to Asian markets including China, Japan and South Korea.

Andrew Rooney, commercial director of Rooney Fish, described Seafood Global as a "tremendously important show which attracted significant interest in our oysters and shellfish". "It was very exciting to attract the interest of chef Guechoud and to hear how he enjoyed our oysters."

More than 26,600 seafood professionals attended the event, the industry's biggest and most successful event. Visitors were from retail and foodservice industries as well as wholesalers, distributors, importers, and exporters.

Attendees also included owners, proprietors, executive purchasing managers, category managers, private label programme buyers and equipment and packaging buyers from retail, foodservice, and other categories

Buyers came from almost 150 countries. Exhibitors represented 72 countries. There were around 70 national and regional country pavilions and over 80 percent had buying authority. Rooney Fish was the only Northern Irish seafood processor with a stand at the expo.