Celebrating Northern Ireland's award winning food firms
The record haul of awards for Northern Ireland food and drink companies this year is being celebrated at a unique event in Belfast which will also be attended by buying teams from major retailers and food service organisations from Great Britain and Ireland.
The event celebrates the achievements of Northern Ireland companies in the Great Taste Awards, the Irish National Food Awards and the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards.
Around 70 award winning companies, mostly artisan enterprises, will show their successful products at the 'meet the buyer' event. Among the top retailers there will be buyers from Harrods and Fortnum and Mason.
Other VIP participants include a 15-strong group of writers and chefs from the UK Guild of Food Writers and leading food and drink consumer and trade magazines in the Republic of Ireland.
The celebratory event is being organised by Invest Northern Ireland with input from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. It marks the achievements during 2014 in major competitions and showcases:
101 Great Taste Award winners (up 50% on last year);
Northern Ireland achieved the same amount of 3 stars as London;
Eight local products featuring in the Top 50 UK Foods;
11 gold, 7 silver and 16 bronze awards in the Irish National Food Awards (Blas na hEireann); and
Four category awards in Irish Quality Food Awards and a further seven
were highly commended.
Food and drink is now among the most successful local industries in terms of innovation and sales abroad and also makes an important contribution to tourism growth as around 30 per cent of the expenditure of visitors is on food and drink.
Award winning artisan enterprises have become very dynamic element of the local food and drink industry, currently contributing £4.5 billion a year to the economy here. It's also the only industry which has grown steadily during the economic downturn. Food and drink has grown at around seven per cent annually over recent years.
The Agri Food Strategy Board's 'Going for Growth' strategic action plan has been developed by the industry, chaired by Tony O'Neill of Dunbia, with Government to help accelerate growth. The strategy, which contains 118 recommendations, was recently endorsed by the Northern Ireland Executive.
Among the award winners taking part will be Yellow Door Deli in Portadown, winner of the Deli and Farmshop Signature Dish in the Great Taste Awards for the second year in a row.
The Northern Ireland Regional Golden Fork in the Great Taste Awards has been won by Peter Hannan, managing director of Hannan Meats of Moira, the third successive year the company has won this category award. It was also Great Taste Supreme Champion in 2012.