Ireland planning dairy export push targeting Philippines, Malaysia

IRELAND’s Food Board, known as Bord Bia, said it hopes to grow dairy exports by about 15 million euros over a three-year campaign targeting the Philippines and Malaysia.

“We have not posted a specific figure or the numerical value for each market, but given the fact that the Philippines has a greater share of dairy exports than Malaysia, we can see that the majority or the greater part of that (growth) will come from the Philippines,” Jim O’Toole, chief executive officer of Bord Bia, said at a briefing on Thursday.

Bord Bia is also undertaking a 3.2 million-euro promotional campaign in the two ASEAN markets.

It will also seek to bring in buyers from the two countries as well as Japan, Vietnam and Thailand to visit Irish dairy farms and processors.

Bord Bia will also host two dairy technical seminars in Malaysia and the Philippines.

The Bord Bia campaign is co-funded by the European Union, which aims to raise awareness of European dairy products and increase dairy exports to Southeast Asia.

In 2022, Ireland’s dairy exports to the Philippines amounted to 72 million euros, up 107%.

Irish beef exports grew 91.4% to 49 million euros in 2022, while pork exports rose 71.4% to 24 million euros.

Ireland’s other exports also grew last year with beverages surging 215% to 1.5 million euros in 2022.

Meanwhile, Martin Heydon, Irish Agriculture, Food and the Marine minister, said Ireland can play a role in helping the Philippines achieve food security.

“We have developed our agriculture system really significantly… over the last 50 or 60 years, and we have done that through research, science and innovation. We have learned a lot from that experience that we believe that we can share,” Mr. Heydon said.

“And we are going to engage further to see how some of those learnings can be shared for the benefit of the Philippines,” he added.

On Nov. 7, Bord Bia visited the Philippines on a fifth trade mission to Southeast Asia.

The Irish ministerial delegation brought in 12 companies from Ireland, while other Irish companies were represented by traders based in the Philippines.

During the trade mission, Irish dairy processors Tirlan and Lakeland Diaries signed agreements with distributors in Manila to supply Irish cream and butter. — Justine Irish D. Tabile