Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Michael Creed T.D. today met with Ambassadors and diplomats from the ten South East Asian member countries of the ASEAN Economic Community.

Speaking after the meeting, Minister Creed said:

“Building new market opportunities is a vital part of our strategy for the development of the agri food sector, and is all the more important against the background of Brexit.  The value and volume of trade in agri products to ASEAN countries is already significant, but there is considerable potential for further growth in the years to come.

Developing  positive relationships, and increasing  Ireland’s profile as a centre of excellence across a range of disciplines related to the production of safe, high quality food, is a critical part of our strategy.   The ambassadors were interested to hear of Ireland’s plans under Food Wise 2025 to grow its agri-food exports from €11bn in 2015 to €19bn in 2025.    

Trade from Ireland to the ASEAN countries continues to grow across many different sectors of the economy. I was delighted to have the opportunity to reiterate our commitment to furthering this important relationship.” 

Together these nations comprise the seventh largest economy in the world, with a collective consumer population of over 620 million people.  Merchandise trade between Ireland and the ASEAN countries was valued at approximately €2.5 billion in 2014, and the value of Ireland’s agri food exports to the region in 2015 was almost €200 million. 

Against the background of Brexit, and as part of his Department’s active engagement in opening new markets and expanding existing ones, Minister Creed briefed the ambassadors on Ireland’s strategic plan to increase the value of agri food exports to €19 billion by 2025. 

Minister Andrew Doyle visited Vietnam, one of the larger members of ASEAN, last September, as part of a major agri food trade mission to the Far East, led by Minister Creed. 

Note for editors:

• ASEAN is made up of Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia (the sole Ambassador based in Dublin), the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Brunei Darussalam.

• The vast majority of Irish exports are made up of dairy produce which saw €142m in 2015 out of total exports of €193m for that year. The next biggest commodities are beef (€15m) and pigmeat (€9.2m)

To view this Press Release as a PDF: DAFMPR 21/2017 (pdf 476Kb) 

Date Released: 09 February 2017