Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 404: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the strategy he is following in the allocation of the funds announced in budget 2010 for the improvement of the food industry's competitiveness, marketing and innovation; the competitiveness measures in the food industry envisaged for the €7 million competitiveness measures of the food development initiative; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11478/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Government has announced a €100 million fund to improve the food industry's competitiveness over the next four years. The roll-out of this fund will commence in 2010 with €9.5 million being provided through my Department as part of the Revised Estimates. Of this amount, €7 million will be administered by Enterprise Ireland towards measures aimed at competitiveness issues and €2.5 million will be provided to support Bord Bia marketing initiatives. These initiatives will be implemented over the course of 2010.

The objective of the €7million in funding is to improve food sector competitiveness in export markets. This is linked to sustaining viable companies and enabling them to exploit world market opportunities. The focus of initiatives in 2010 will be to enable key exporting companies to adopt sustainable 'best-in-class' lean business practices, by use of world class business consultancy assistance. In addition, leading food companies will be assisted in developing leadership and management capability to best international standards. These needs were clearly identified in the report of the Food Expert Skills Group in 2009.

The €2.5 million provided to Bord Bia will be used in a variety of marketing initiatives principally aimed at assisting the industry broaden its export reach. In addition to the recent highly successful Marketplace 2010 event hosted by Bord Bia for over 150 Irish companies who conducted over 3,800 meetings with 400 buyers in Croke Park, including 300 from 27 international markets, a new Marketing Fellowship programme will be launched shortly. This initiative will focus on helping industry build its international sales and marketing presence and develop new business opportunities in target markets. Bord Bia is also in the process of extending its quality assurance programme to incorporate new environmental criteria that will position Irish food exporters as market leaders and provide a new platform for promotion in the context of the increasingly important sustainability agenda.