Irish Exporters Association, Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association and Scotland Food and Drink have partnered with an EU-funded scheme to grow food and drinks exports for producers.
Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Interreg cross regional programme, the export programme Access 6 aims to set up six cross-border ‘clusters’.
These ‘clusters’ will focus on exporting to Southeast England, France, Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg), Germany, Scandinavia and North America.
Between now and 2017, it is hoped the programme will increase export sales of 90 regional food and drinks producers by €22.93 million.
Following the German cluster of the initiative being established on 16 January, two Scottish companies and five companies from Ireland and Northern Ireland were signed up.
Irish and Scottish food producers hoping to launch products into the German retail and food service market can receive assistance from consultancy firm Green Seed Germany through the German cluster.
