Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Review of Food Harvest 2020 Strategy: Discussion (Resumed) with Irish Dairy Board and Bord Bia

3:05 pm

Mr. Joe O'Flynn:

We spend in the order of €3 million per year. On the question of why only Kerrygold has leverage potential and whether it could be used for meat, I will make an observation: developing an international brand is horrendously expensive. In the first instance we must leverage the capability of whatever brands we have to the maximum extent. Consumers consider Kerrygold predominantly as a butter brand but we see potential to leverage that across dairy products. That is a step-by-step process. It would be a huge stretch to extend the brand into meat. I do not say it is impossible but it would not be on the short-term horizon.