Northern Irish artisans featured at unique Food Summit

Three Northern Irish companies were showcased at the inaugural Food Summit in Dublin, the largest food showcase in Ireland. The prestigious event, held as part of the Web Summit, a major technology gathering, took place yesterday and (30th Oct) & today, 31st October.

The Northern Irish companies include Armagh Cider Company, Armagh, county Armagh, DJ Juices and Ciders, Lisburn, county Antrim, and Ditty's Oatcakes and Traditional Irish Breads from Magherafelt, county Londonderry.

They were among over 60 artisan food and drink producers from Ireland taking part in the Web Summit, which featured extensive tasting sessions for delegates from around the world attending the summit.

Over the two days of the Web Summit guests were served with 400,000 tastings of food and drink, and a unique experience of Ireland's rich culinary culture.

The inaugural Food Summit was a partnership between the Web Summit and Good Food Ireland. They teamed up to treat over 10,000 guests to the best of Irish food. The event also featured dishes prepared by chefs from Ireland's top restaurants and hotels.

The Web Summit is Europe's largest annual technology event and festival of ideas. The event sold out last week and had guests which included CEOs from multinational companies, technology start-ups, international media and investors attending from over 90 countries in Dublin.

Last year the Web Summit was calculated to be worth £20 million to the local economy, while all Good Food Ireland-approved businesses were worth £40 million to the Irish economy according to a Grant Thornton Business Insights Survey. Food and drink contributes over £4 billion annually to the Northern Ireland economy.

Paddy Cosgrave, Chief executive of Web Summit, said: "Ireland should be the world's food capital. No other nation produces more food per capita than Ireland, and the food we produce is of an exceptional quality. Yet, very few of our more than 400 international journalists would ever associate incredible food with Ireland. We are going to change that."

Good Food Ireland founder Margaret Jeffares said: "Good Food Ireland has become the icon for authentic food experience in Ireland, through its 600 plus businesses' shared philosophy and commitment to using local food. If anyone can change the international attitude to the food experience in this country we can."

Renowned chefs from some of Ireland's top hotels, restaurants and food stores including The Merrion Hotel, Rathmullan House, The Shelbourne Hotel, Butler's Pantry, Mount Falcon Estate, Ely, as well as cooking legend Darina Allen from the Ballymaloe Cookery School, were also on hand to provide international guests a taste of Ireland's rich culinary culture.

Founded in 2009 the Web Summit event has grown exponentially and this year hosted over 10,000 attendees and guests in the RDS in Dublin.

Over the past three years, Niklas Zennström of Skype, Reed Hastings of Netflix, David Karp of Tumblr, Jack Dorsey, Steve Case and Tim Armstrong of AOL, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim of YouTube have attended