Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gaining third country market access and opening up trading opportunities throughout the world for Irish exports has long been integral to the Department’s strategic approach to the development of the agrifood sector. This has grown increasingly important as we deal with the challenges presented by both the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit. While trade missions will continue to play a key role here, our traditional in-person method of developing trade with customers is not currently feasible.

To that end, the Minister and I, in conjunction with Bord Bia, recently held a series of virtual trade missions with customers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. These interactive engagements spanned five dates in November and December and included Irish industry and existing and potential customers overseas. We have also engaged in a series of virtual meetings with key international customers from Germany, the UK, Japan, China, the United Arab Emirates and south-east Asia. In these uncertain times, meaningful and continued engagement with Ireland’s growing customer base throughout the world is more important than ever. This innovative approach of bringing trade missions online creates an opportunity to further deepen trading relationships between Ireland and key customers in these regions. These virtual events also remind our key customers that Ireland remains committed to them and is able to supply foods in which their consumers can have confidence.

The Government’s commitment to new market development was further illustrated by my appointment earlier this year as Minister of State with specific responsibility for this task. The Department has also placed four additional agriculture attachés in the Irish embassy network in recent years, in Berlin, Tokyo and Mexico city in 2019, and in Seoul, South Korea, in 2020. In addition, the Department's international trade activities are being reorganised and further developed to deal with the challenges of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. We are doing everything we can to be agile and responsive to the challenges that Covid is presenting. In the context of the challenges that Brexit poses, we are not letting our foot off the gas and are continuing to drive on with accessing and developing new markets. We are also ensuring that we grow the markets we have.

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