McCrackens Real Ale, an award-winning Northern Irelandcraft brewery, has won its first export business in Italy.

Based in Portadown, county Armagh, the family-owned and managed brewery secured the important export sales for its extensive portfolio of beers following a direct approach from a leading distributor in Milan.

Ryan McCracken, the founder and managing director of the business, explains: “At the end of January, the Italian distributor reached out to us through social media, where I later discovered he had come across our range of Irish craft beers. 

“The distributor liked our beers and was impressed by our position as a traditional, independent, family-run brewery which produces quality and award-winning beers in relatively small batches,” Mr McCracken adds.

The distributor, he continues, had been sourcing beers through similar breweries in Britain but found supply threatened bythe country’s withdrawal from the EU and decided to look for an alternative supplier in Northern Ireland, a part of the UK remaining within the European community.

Mr McCracken adds: “We quickly discovered that we were a right fit for each other and after some further discussions around our range we received a confirmed initial order for a couple of pallets. 

“The export business is a real boost for the business at a time when many of our outlets in bars, restaurants and hotels have been shut due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.

“We had previously developed a new Irish stout, “McCrackens Black” and had been planning on introducing it later in the year. It was good timing as the distributor loved the idea and we ended up bringing our plans for forward a few months.  The distributor embraced our Irish beers in our range and has ordered decided to our IPA – Irish Pale Ale, Red – Irish Red Ale, Black – Irish Stout and Gold – Pale Ale,” he adds.

The Irish craft beers will be distributed to a network of outlets especially in northern Italy from Milan.

McCrackens Real Ales has won several UK awards for outstanding taste and has also supplied customers in Great Britain by means of social media in particular.

Mr McCracken set up the craft distillery and developed the range of bottle-conditioned beers using his own recipes in September 2018. He had started brewing as a hobby in 2014 and continues as the brewery’s main brewer.

Boatyard Distillery in Northern Ireland has won gold and silver awards for two products in the annual Bartenders’ Brand Awards.

The craft distillery, which is based near Enniskillen in county Fermanagh, won gold for its vodka and silver for its double distilled gin in the awards which are a unique blind tasting, design and value-tested competition for spirits, wines, beers and drinks products available within the UK bar industry. 

Joe McGirr, Boatyard founder and master distiller, which is based in a converted boat house overlooking picturesque Lough Erne in Northern Ireland’s lakelands, says: “We are thrilled to have achieved this important recognition from bartenders in Britain, a key market for us as we seek to grow our business especially outside Northern Ireland. 

“These awards are immensely important because they are purely focused on the on-trade and are open to drinks brands that are available in UK cocktail, hotel and restaurant bars,” he adds.

Now in their fourth year, the event aims to provide independent and honest reviews for drinks brands targeting the UK bar trade. The results are a relevant and practical source of reference for bartenders, bar managers, bar owners and professionals when making purchasing decisions for their establishments.

The judging panel boasts some of the most renowned names in the UK bar industry today, giving winning spirits, wine, beer and drinks products an endorsement from the most influential people in the global drinks industry.

Boatyard vodka was the first ‘seed to sip’ wheat vodka in Ireland, made using organic Irish wheat from county Kildare in the Republic of Ireland.

The Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) are working in collaboration with the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU), to celebrate Northern Ireland’s world class beef this NI Beef Week. This year the weeklong event, running from 23^rd to 30th April will focus on how Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assured (NIFQA) beef is farmed with the environment in mind, and is naturally nutritious. 

LMC chief executive Ian Stevenson commented, “We are once again proud to be leading the way through the Northern Ireland Beef week initiative, which provides a great opportunity to showcase our responsibly produced, nutritious, world class beef. As the Northern Ireland beef and lamb industry’s promotional body LMC is constantly looking at trends in the marketplace at home and abroad so that we can understand what is driving consumer behaviour and the choices they make when they are shopping for meal solutions. There is no doubt in our minds that Northern Ireland Farm Quality Assured Beef is truly world class, and our planned activity during beef week works hard to promote the very positive story we have to tell.

Our activity during beef week will use the sensory experience that comes with cooking and eating high quality beef as a tool to engage consumers in the positive story that the beef industry has to tell in addressing global challenges such as climate change and meeting the nutritional needs of a growing population.”

Ian commented on how NIFQA beef farmers are contributing to an environmentally progressive industry; “Northern Irish beef farmers continue to farm regeneratively, improving grasslands, planting hedgerows and trees which provide a habitat for many small animals as well as storing significant amounts of carbon in grasslands. This is why we are in the perfect climate to produce our world class, grass fed beef, which in return gives consumers a local product which is naturally rich in macro and micro nutrients which we will be highlighting during beef week.”

Beef Week 2021 takes place from the 23^rd to 30^th April. Promotional activities have had to become virtually based to comply with Covid-19 guidelines. However, this has not hindered plans as LMC are undertaking a series of activity throughout the week in collaboration with Belfast live and U105, alongside local chef and ‘Truth About Beef’ presenter, James Devine.  LMC will deliver a social media campaign across both their LMC, and Beef and Lamb NI Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, reaching a wide demographic of consumers.

The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) are planning to work alongside social media influencer ‘Dish You Were Here’, to promote NIFQA beef. Dish You Were Here run a very successful food blogging page on Instagram with over 36,000 followers. They will demonstrate how to cook a beef dish using NIFQA beef while informing their followers of the benefits of the beef industry to the environment and why they should always look for the NIFQA logo. The UFU will also run a social media campaign through their own Facebook, Twitter and newly founded Instagram account promoting the benefits of eating NIFQA beef on the environment through images and videos.

UFU deputy president William Irvine said, “We are delighted to be collaborating with LMC for Beef Week 2021. It’s such an important initiative providing a much-needed opportunity to focus on our high-quality, versatile NIFQA beef, produced to world leading environmental and animal welfare standards.

“With climate change being at the top of everyone’s agenda and following the recent support given by several of our local political parties regarding proposals to legislate for net zero by 2045 in NI- which could wipe out half of our livestock farmers just to meet a legislative target that does not seem to have any scientific basis – its important now more than ever to showcase the magnitude and sustainability of local beef farming in NI. From our extensive grass-fed systems to the key role our beef farmers have in tackling climate change and caring for the environment and wildlife. The beef sector is a major driving force within agriculture, one of our most successful industries and we will be working to promote its significant contributions to NI in entirety, throughout beef week.”

There seems to be widespread confusion, particularly in Great Britain, about the Northern Ireland Protocol. People haven’t had time to look into the details and seem to think that the restrictions on selling to Northern Ireland apply in both directions. 

It concerns me that this will have an impact on our food and drink producers. While it may be too soon to say, important new information about trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the island was released last week by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Dublin. This revealed that cross-border trade rose sharply in January as the new Brexit trading arrangements came into force. 

Also significant is the finding that imports of goods from Great Britain (GB) to the Republic have slumped while exports to Britain have also fallen. What we don’t know…and probably won’t until the end of this year…is the impact of Brexit and the Protocol on trade between Great Britain, our biggest and most important for food and drink products, and Northern Ireland. It appears likely that the statistics could eventually show a decline.  

Brexit, Farm Week readers will know, introduced new bureaucracy and trading rules with the Northern Irish Protocol from our continuing position within the European Union after Britain’s withdrawal from the community.

Certainly, there’s enough evidence from our member companies of problems in sourcing essential supplies and ingredients from Britain including imports from EU members. Retailers continue to experience difficulties in sourcing fresh fruit and vegetables being shipped from EU countries such as Spain through Britain. Drinks companies, in addition, are experiencing problems in sourcing bottles and other essential requirements.  Smaller food producers in Britain have also opted not to supply Northern Ireland due to the document heavy Protocol.

Delis and other specialist food retailers have faced delays in food products including cheese from France and Italy. It’s clear that we need a resolution of Protocol problems… and as soon as practicable.

Another sign of the post-Brexit times is the decision by Bristol-based tobacco giant Imperial Tobacco to announce it will stop selling some brands in Northern Ireland as a result of the cost of setting up separate production lines. The additional lines would be needed because the Northern Ireland Protocol means tobacco products sold in the region must continue to bear EU pictorial health warnings, while GB is moving to Australian health warnings.

We await decisions from Britain and the EU about measures to help companies overcome the delays and other hurdles. It’s vitally important for our economy that any hurdles to trade with Britain are removed or mitigated quickly.

The growth in sales to the Republic, the biggest export market for our food and drink, is good news. And it appears that more companies, especially in the Republic, have turned to Northern Ireland suppliers to help offset difficulties in doing business with Britain.

While this is immensely encouraging, we still need progress on the negotiations to tackle the Protocol delays because Britain remains the biggest market for our food and drink producers in particular.

The CSO said the businesses it spoke to reported that Brexit was behind the trade flow changes as companies looked to avoid the red tape involved when goods cross the Irish Sea.

Traders reported that a combination of factors contributed to the large reduction in imports from Great Britain in January 2021. These included the challenges of complying with customs requirements.

Other factors identified by traders were stockpiling of goods in Quarter 4 2020 in preparation for Brexit, substitution with goods from other countries, and a reduction in trade volumes due to the impact of COVID-19 related restrictions throughout January. 

In total, exports from the Republic to Northern Ireland climbed 17 percent to £170 million in January while imports from Northern Ireland to the Republic climbed 10 percent to £151 million.

The marked fall in imports to the Republic from GB must surely be a worry for the Government in Westminster. Exports to other EU countries have also been adversely impacted in the wake of Brexit. In total, imports on that trade route fell by 65 percent to just £427 million, surely a serious blow to companies across Britain.

Abernethy Butter has won a prestigious Irish Guild of Food Writers Award for their range of butters, lemon curd and handmade fudge. 

Abernethy Butter’s Will and Allison Abernerthy were described by the Guild as “custodians of a near-lost tradition of handmade, hand-rolled butter in Ireland, having begun producing Abernethy Butter around ten years ago and growing it into the award-winning brand it is today, with a variety of flavours as well as handmade fudge and lemon curd. 

“A unique dairy product, commercially unlike any other in Ireland in terms of process, their small-batch, slow-churned, hand-rolled butter shaped with wooden pats is made using Draynes Farm grass-fed, single-herd cream, which Allison and Will found to be the creamiest cream, resulting in the driest, best butter. 

“Abernethy Butter is frequently listed on menus and a star ingredient in dishes of the best restaurants in Ireland and the UK, with a slew of stockists and their walls covered with prestigious awards. Offering a variety of flavours (Dulse Butter, Black Garlic Butter, Smoked Butter, Chipotle Chilli & Smoked Paprika Butter), their unsalted and salted butters are their signature, and ‘Abernethy Gold’ should surely be added to the colour chart for that unmistakable, rich shade each roll bears.”

Speaking after hearing of the award, Allison Abernethy said she and her husband Will were “absolutely delighted and very honoured to be chosen”.

“It is lovely that the Guild have recognised the tradition of hand-made butter” she said. 

The IFWG Food Awards are unique.  No business or individual can enter, nor do they know if they have been nominated or shortlisted for an award.  The Guild is the sole nominating and decision-making body* whose members nominate and anonymously buy products for tasting. Proportional representation voting is then undertaken at a Guild tasting meeting. Winning products must be produced in Ireland and the main ingredient must be Irish grown or produced.

A pile of honeybee books teeter on a table beside my desk. They cover everything from the basics of honeybee husbandry, their ancient origins, to the meaning behind awaggle dance. My favourites, however, are the books dedicated to the wonder of honey. A substance I had not given much thought to before I began beekeeping and experienced the marvel of honey first-hand. Global honey production is now a multi-billion industry and honey fraud is an increasing problem on the world honey market. Thankfully, consumers are becoming more aware of food-miles and the importance of good welfare practices and that makes our locally sourced honey more precious than ever. 

​Our first honey harvest was more exciting than a Christmas Day morning. We all squealed with delight to see the golden liquid pour out of the centrifuge. It was impossible not to put a finger underneath the flow of the thick golden joy. Sometimes, we’d cut out chunks straight from a frame and spread it on hot buttered toast. Each tiny hexagonal wax sealed cell would burst with the most natural sweetnessknown to humankind and ooze glorious goodness. Honey is used with proud and regular abandon in our kitchen, its antibacterial properties have even been put to the test on cuts and grazes. It’s the elixir of our lives and our honeybees are treated with the same reverence as ancient man who believed bees were the tears of God.  To watch a jellybean sized bee travel back and forth to her hive, her hind legs loaded with crumbs of pollen, is to feel the glow of awe.

Any and every season of our weather can be brutal. We all know that. It takes a hardy bee to survive here. My bees have no discernible yellow stripes, the Black Irish honeybee has been carefully bred and curated over generations by local artisanal beekeepers to endure our inclement climate.Researchers have found that Irish heather honey has similar antioxidants to manuka honey and is one of the best in the world for its phenolic compounds. Our native black bees are tough and quiet bees to handle and just like their name suggests their bodies are pewter black. They are entirely unique, an insect form of a pint of Guinness. 

But a threat is coming their way.  In our new post-Brexit world bees can no longer be transported from the EU direct to mainland UK, but a loophole means they can come via Northern Ireland and then be moved on from here. A bee equipment company is set to exploit this situation and in a few weeks three consignments of bees are due to arrive in County Down. Each consignment is due to have 500+ packages of honeybees from the Puglia region in southern Italy. This region of Italy has recently experienced devastating outbreaks of the Small Hive Beetle (SHB) a pest that is lethal to honeybees. A pest that is not yet present on the island of Ireland. The imported bees will fly freely during the peak mating season and nectar-flow months. This will increase the risk of spreading potential disease such as the SHB, it will putincreased pressure on local flowers and fauna, endangering the food source of local solitary bees and bumblebees. It will be an aggressive intrusion that will undoubtably have a negative impact on the conservation of our precious native black bee. 

I’ve written many times before about the wonder honeybees ignite in me. They defy the laws of gravity, endurance and time. An insect that produces the sweetest natural liquid and in turn pollinates one in every three bites we eat. Imagine the acres of apple orchards in our cider county of Armagh without bees there to pollinate them. Bees are invisible food heroes, tiny workers that are never credited on the menu. We need to protect and cherish our native honeybees because they are the only ones who are strong enough to withstand our inhospitable weather cycles. We need to safeguard them whenever and however we can. Twenty-first century living is tough enough for these ancient insects; increased pesticide use, a decrease in wildflower forage and climate change already makes their lives a perilous daily battle. 

Please help by signing the petition below to stop the transportation of Italian honeybees into Northern Ireland.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/577603

By Natasha Geary 

@Tellit2thebees