Food Harvest 2020 identified the potential of the speciality and artisan food sector and advice and support have been developed by the development agencies and my Department to assist the development of food businesses in this area.
In September I launched Food Academy, a joint initiative by Bord Bia and the County Enterprise Boards to provide a consistent level of food marketing knowledge to new and early-stage food business owners. For the first time, food start ups regardless of location will have access to a standardized programme of supports throughout the country. The programme will guide companies from start-up to their first retail listing. Workshop style training, designed by Bord Bia and SuperValu, will be rolled out and run by 35 County Enterprise Boards, with local SuperValu retailers in each region participating in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ style pitch process. Participants will have the opportunity to pitch their product or idea with a view to securing an initial local listing and the potential to build from there. Bord Bia will design follow-up supports under the Food Academy banner to assist companies with their continued development.
Bord Bia also provides financial support under its Marketing Assistance Programme (MAP) to small food, drink and horticulture companies, to help them improve their marketing techniques and capabilities. In 2013, 187 companies from 23 counties were approved grants amounting to €963,000. Companies from the BMW Region submitted 22% of the applications and were allocated 21% of the funds.
Since April 2012 the LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme 2007-2013, which is administered through the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, have funding available under Measure 123 to support and encourage economic activity in rural areas through the development of food enterprises. The measure provides support for both start up and established enterprises to develop and improve their food products. €5 million is available for payment up to the end of 2014. To date, €2.6 million has been allocated to projects and related administration and €318,172 has been paid to projects.
The Bord Bia Foresight for Food service to groups of artisans/small firms assists them to collaborate around research and to commercialise growth. Artisan companies are among those benefiting from participation in Origin Green and Bord Bia is considering how to demonstrate to more artisan SMEs how they can benefit from this programme. The annual Artisan Food Market at BLOOM continues to provide niche food producers with a major opportunity to showcase and sell their products to consumers, BLOOM 2013 attracted a record 120,000 visitors.
The Taste Council, which is affiliated to Bord Bia, has designed a Food Module for transition year secondary school students with the objective of increasing students' understanding of the benefits of local and artisan food. This will be piloted in 8 schools from January 2014 and rolled out to a wider number of schools nationwide in September 2014. The TASTE Council also sponsored the Blas Na hEireann artisan producer award on October 6th 2013. Increasing awareness of niche foods is important to promote consumption. The farmhouse cheese sector has been growing in importance locally and in terms of exports, which now amount to some €4 million a year. Teagasc provides specialist advice to farmhouse cheese-makers in developing their cheese enterprises and the European Commission this year approved 50% EU co-financing of a three year programme ' Discover Farmhouse Cheese '. My Department is contributing a further 30% with the balance of 20% being provided by Cáis and the National Dairy Council. The programme is managed by Bord Bia.
