All European dairy from Ireland is grass-fed dairy, which has long been known as a premium form of dairy \u2014 studies have shown that this contains higher amounts of linoleic acid (omega-6 fatty acids) and omega-3 fatty acids, both of which are essential fatty acids that must be consumed from food. <\/p>\n
Such is the general faith in the premium quality of Irish dairy that the European Union chose the Irish Food Board (Bord Bia) to run the dairy portion of its promotional campaign into Asia, representing an EUR3.2m investment over three years to tap on growing demand for functional nutrition and rising incomes in this market.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrass-fed dairy is essentially when the cows producing that dairy consume a diet that is at least 95% grass, and must spend an average of 240 days out on the pasture,\u201d Bord Bia ESG Programme Manager Maedbh Sheehan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland is home to the world\u2019s first grass-fed standard that specifies these requirements, ensuring that the quality of Irish grass-fed dairy is maintained.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dairy industry in this market is flourishing and seeing good growth in comparison with many others, finding appeal even among younger people who are keen to get into the sector,\u201d said Declan Fennell, head of EU promotions. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is due to the sector continuing producing good returns on investment and job opportunities, which in turn offers supply security which is essential for export and trade.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Ireland has had longstanding dairy trade relationships with many mature dairy markets, it is now turning its attention to increase focus on less mature but rapidly developing markets such as Asia due to demographic and economic growth as well as evolving consumer demands in this region.<\/p>\n
\u201cTraditionally Ireland has exported a lot to key markets such as the UK, North America, and Europe, but while these traditional markets are still there, as we continue to evolve and grow and our capabilities increase, export markets are becoming increasingly important,\u201d Bord Bia client manager, Dairy Industry Tara Bane added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is especially clear in Asia where we\u2019ve seen demands of consumers evolve especially in markets such as Vietnam, Singapore and China. For example, Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest consumption of European style cheese and butter, so that\u2019s how you know Irish dairy can be appealing here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dairy makes up Ireland\u2019s single largest source of export income at a value of EUR7.3bn (US$) in 2025, seeing an amazing 14% growth year-on-year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe milk produced here is very premium, which in turn means that this can be made into even more premium products such as cheese, butter and protein powders with great nutritional claims, which consumers are willing to pay a premium price for,\u201d Tirlan Marketing Manager Aoife Herlihy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the Asia Pacific region, especially in places like China, Singapore, South East Asia, consumers are becoming more educated in learning about how ingredients are made or what products they consume, so are now looking for claims like grass-fed, natural, minimally processed.\u201d<\/p>\n
While grass-fed dairy is at the heart of Ireland\u2019s premium push, the fact is that as Asian consumer demands continue to change, there is an undeniable shift towards products with higher functionality and personalised benefits, which is already becoming very visible with the growth seen in categories such as sports nutrition.<\/p>\n
\u201cDairy has been undergoing significant changes, particularly here in Ireland over the past 10 year. One thing that we\u2019re really noticing is sort of that increase in demand for specialised nutrition, such as in for example sports nutrition where there is a high increase in demand for things from protein bars to powders,\u201d Bane added. <\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the raw ingredients required to make these products are dairy-based, such as whey proteins or casein, and as sports nutrition and protein demand moves more and more into the mainstream space, this is a major opportunity for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
To find out more about European dairy from Ireland\u2019s premium push into Asia, check out the video above where we feature expert insights from some of Ireland\u2019s leading dairy firms and research entities.<\/p>\n
We will also meet the farmer and some of the cows producing dairy for one of the country\u2019s most well-known brands, Bailey\u2019s Irish Cream \u2014 including crowd favourite Sally the Cow, and a few friends!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All European dairy from Ireland is grass-fed dairy, which has long been known as a premium form of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[60202,61,60,43,9450],"class_list":["post-611900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-dairy-farm","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}