Ms Tara McCarthy:

I will add two points to Mr. Brennan's comments on beef consumption in China. It is important to remember that we do not have a strategy of trying to westernise the diet of people in China. Rather, we are trying to ensure that Irish beef has a position within Chinese recipes and in how they design their food. Four master chefs will visit Ireland next week. They have custom designed different regional cuisines, for example, Cantonese, to show how they would cook the Irish beef cuts available in their market and propagate same in China. We are not telling people to eat a steak because that is what the Irish do. Rather, we are looking at their recipes and ensuring that our cuts match them. This is a more efficient use of the funding that we have available and it will give rise to a longer-term gain.

I will build on Mr. Brennan's point regarding our relationship with supermarkets. We also seek cross-sectoral opportunities. For example, when we speak to a supermarket about dairy, we also look for an opportunity in the context of beef. When speaking about beef, we look for an opportunity in respect of seafood. Instead of limiting our conversations to just one sector, we are continuously looking at food brand Ireland and all of the opportunities to cross-promote or cross-sell into the market in order to ensure broad access to buyers. That has been one of the benefits of our cross programmes and of placing our Origin Green ambassadors with key accounts. We learn from them as much as anything else. From a talent perspective, we have taken the new initiative of placing our assets, if I might put it that way. I am referring to professionals whom we are working with through a student network with University College Dublin. We place them with our accounts. By that, I mean that we have our supply chain students placed with Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sodexo and Sainsbury's in order to understand better how their supply chains and decision-making work and then bring that intelligence back to the industry with a view to ensuring that Ireland positions itself well to face the challenges that may arise. In terms of sustainability, we have, through our Origin Green programme, similarly placed our assets into businesses. Be they customers or non-customers, they are always thought leaders. Ireland is using an opportunity at every point to inform itself about what the best in class are thinking.