Farm Week – Michele Shirlow
Local food gold successes from Dingle to Amsterdam
Congratulations Morelli Ice Cream from Coleraine of what was a virtual clean sweep at this year’s Blas na hEireann, Irish National Food Awards in Dingle, Co Kerry, winning the prestigious Supreme Champion Award, the Shane McArdle Award for Best in Ulster and Best in Co Derry. It was a hugely impressive performance by a local company and the second Northern Ireland triumph in the past five years, following the success of Rooney Fish in Kilkeel for its Millbay Oysters in 2019.
I was lucky enough to be in Dingle for the awards. It was an amazing weekend with so much success for Northern Irish companies. Morelli won the top award for its stunningly delicious mango sorbet, a tremendous success following three gold stars in the UK Great Taste Awards for its pistachio ice cream, another superb product. It’s been quite a year for the popular family business, which I am delighted to say is one of our most enthusiastic and supportive member companies.
We are delighted to see the outstanding achievements of the company under Arnaldo Morelli, the managing director, and sister Daniela Morelli-Kerr, the commercial director, as well other family members. They are great ambassadors for the local food and drink industry and rated highly throughout the UK and Ireland for the outstanding quality of their ice cream and sorbets and overall focus on innovation. And it’s a visionary company which has also been quick to embrace other artisan enterprises such as Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt, in a frozen yoghurt, and Irish Black Butter, in a unique ice cream flavour.
Encouragingly, Rooney Fish/Millbay Oysters, the only other Northern Irish company to bring home the title of Supreme Champion from Blas, is also a supportive Food NI member. Another important development took place in Amsterdam when Hannan Meats, another Food NI member, won three gold medals for fillet and ribeye in the exacting World Steak Challenge. Peter Hannan, a highly valued Food NI board member, entered three innovative steaks and came away with an impressive three gold medals and a silver. It was another outstanding achievement by our fabulous industry. There were other significant awards for Kettyle Irish Foods in Lisnaskea, ABP Ireland and Foyle Foods in Derry at the global event. Congratulations to our good friend Peter Hannan and the other winners in Amsterdam.
It really was another remarkable period for our amazing industry, showing the tremendous potential our producers possess for international sales. Other member companies featured in export successes – Irish Black Butter in Portrush clinched first-time business in Texas and Rademon Estate Distillery in Crossgar became part of a unique global collection of spirits’ distributors Berry Bros and Rudd. Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt signed a deal with Aldi worth £8.6 million that will see its great products on sale in Britain. And Symphonia Spirits was listed by Tesco Ireland for its gin.
The enormous potential, especially in terms of exports, of our industry was also highlighted during Blas na hEireann. It was a tremendous boost to see so many smaller companies collecting awards, including many of our member companies. Our congratulations to all the winners at Dingle. We look forward to continuing to work with all in promoting our incredible industry. Securing that coveted Blas badge is a huge achievement and means those producers who are short listed as finalists and the final winners really are the crème de la crème of Irish food and drink.
