June 2008: Taste Of Northern Ireland
Breathing new life into the province, Invest Northern Ireland’s continuous activities have spurred the growth in demand for its local produce
There was a time when the only news you heard from Northern Ireland was about “the troubles”, so it was refreshing to find on a recent ‘meet the buyers’ visit to Belfast that the troubles are well and truly behind this great city.
The regeneration that has been carried out in the area has had a huge impact with millions of pounds being poured into the region to boost the economy and, more importantly, its food and drink industry.
Northern Ireland has a thriving food enterprise and the Government backed Regional Economic Development Agency under its Invest Northern Ireland (INI) branding has been instrumental in promoting it. Building locally and competing globally is its slogan and to capitalise on the theme, it recently invited FDA chairman Jon Bicknell and a party of FDA members to meet a selection of suppliers it felt would inspire them with new ideas for their menus.
INI, which is keen to get its ‘good food is in our nature’ mantra across to as wide an audience as possible, says producers are investing heavily in their businesses to enable them to compete globally, and the companies it chose for the group to visit covered a broad spectrum of produce.
Rich Sauces in Newtownards, Co Down, a leading producer of mayonnaise, sauces, dressings and bouillons, has been operating in the UK for four years and has 10,000 end users. The company currently produces more than 100 lines, and many of its sauces are used as a base in Michelin starred restaurants.
Managing director Michael Haddock admitted mayonnaise was becoming more expensive because of the rising price of rapeseed oil, but there was a lot you could do with it. This was ably shown by executive chef Clint Fulton, who demonstrated the use of its thick mayonnaise with fruit, showing how best to sell it in deli bars simply mixed with toasted almonds on top which was a common mix locally. Other recipes included coleslaw with red cabbage and cranberries, plus its concentrated sweet chilli sauce.
Making coleslaw, he says, needs a bit of work because of the oil content. “You need to spread it through the mix and it’s even better next day. Water comes out of vegetables but our mayo is so thick it absorbs the water. It sells particularly well from salad counters.
Dressings are part of its “dressed to impress” range and made a little thicker so that they cling to food. These dressings are multi application products to be used for everything, says Fulton, as he demonstrated honey dressing poured over gammon ham and then caramelised in the oven.
Tikka sauce was demonstrated with chicken along with yogurt, cream and mayonnaise to show that with chopped almonds you can have a perfect chicken korma in no time at all, and Cajun hot and sweet was used as a dipping sauce for wings. Using mayonnaise to replicate cream and yogurt he made a raita and a sour mayonnaise and chive dip. It won’t separate, adds Fulton. One of its latest products is a nut free satay that it says will help address the nut allergy issue.
At the Linden Food Group in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, beef and lamb processing is its bedrock, with innovation in chilled and frozen beef and lamb cuts, and it has spent more than £6m in processing equipment. It is the sole supplier for Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury in Ireland.
The meat industry is the biggest in the island, says joint managing director Gerry Maguire. Special packs of sirloin, size identical, are available and it can supply products with coatings and sauces. Maguire says there is currently a growing trend for value products. “Even M&S is looking at known value items – and will sell lower cost products,” he says.
Everyone though is looking for a speciality, he adds. There has been growth in added value burgers for example. “People are now eating them on their own without bread,” he says, adding that recently the group launched a quarterpounder with a filling for M&S, and more are in the pipeline.
Thinly sliced beef is another big seller, and with the right technology any meat can be sliced this way, says Maguire. Organic is catching on in Ireland, he adds, and this year there will be organic beef sauces for M&S.
For Irwin’s Bakery in Portadown, Co Armagh, the Paul Rankin Collection is important to its sales. The Rankin range consists of nine products and the company is looking at new ideas of strawberry and cream soda bread and yogurt soda bread. Retail specialities are soda, batch and muffins – 45% of turnover is exported to Britain. Lappin says its biggest product in foodservice is its sandwich muffin but it is looking at tray bakes and cup cakes. This year its key launch for foodservice is a twin pack of its Guinness whole grain bread, which contains 17% Guinness. Business development manager Brendan Lappin sees this bread as niche for retail but for foodservice a great possibility.
Putting its fresh produce on show was Wilson’s Country in Craigavon, Co Armagh. It supplies prepacked potatoes, peeled potatoes and freshly cut fruit and has just invested £5m in its factory. Star products are prepacked fruit such as its apple and grape bagged snack. These have a shelf life of three to five days but the company is looking at technology from the southern hemisphere to lengthen this time.
New combinations in its fresh cut fruit range include mango, pineapple and blueberry, and mango, pineapple and pomegranate, and it is working on a breakfast combo. It had also just started to supply bulk orange segments in Britain.
Meetings like these work both ways, says former managing director of Funnybones, Jazz Ghosby, who is in the process of setting up his own business. “We can see what we want but they can find out what we need.”
Provenance was a big thing with Paul Merry of ISS Eaton. “If I’m in Northern Ireland I want northern Irish.” Mash Direct impressed him because of the provenance. “It’s not what I want but if I were to buy mash it would be that,” adding that the business was small, its packaging was good and the different potato varieties were good for colcannon, a traditional Irish dish. “It comes down to provenance, tradition and good Irish food. There’s no point bringing it in if it’s already in Britain.”
Another company that interested the group was Davisons, which only used bramley apples to make little tubs of puréed apples for the children’s grab and go market.
Food development consultant Ben Bartlett said he was planning an Irish food week for 2009 with traditional menus for pubs, so this was a good opportunity to meet suppliers.
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