Shoppers in Texas will soon be able to enjoy a unique food from Portrush in Co Antrim that’s been billed as “a new taste of Ireland” and has also just been shortlisted for a prestigious UK Quality Food and Drink award with many much bigger companies in Great Britain.

Around 12 food stores in Dallas and other cities in the ‘Lone Star State’ are set to receive the first consignments of Irish Black Butter, a multi-award-winning sweet/savoury spread that’s made from Armagh Bramley apples and a special blend of spices, as a result of a deal between the Co Antrim business, one of Northern Ireland’s smallest artisan enterprises that’s owned and run by Alastair Bell, and Eurok Inc.

Food NI member Irish Black Butter, a UK Great Taste Award winner, has also just shipped consignments to New York and Boston in repeat business with a food distributor there. And the Portrush company is also following up approaches for the spread from a food business in Florida.

Headquartered in Dallas, Eurok, Inc is an importer focusing on “unique and distinctive food brands from the UK and from Europe”. The company says “its products are connected to the people and the land where they are made”. “They taste great, are traditional and authentic or are the results of their local trends”. Managing director Cedric Chastenat continues that he “created the company to connect specialty food US retailers and independent stores to a small number of interesting brands”.

“Foods open us up to new discoveries; like a cultural bridge. Each product here has its story; an expression of a trilogy: craft, people, and earth,” he adds. Irish Black Butter’s Alastair Bell met the Eurok boss at a ‘meet the buyer’ event in London organised by the UK Department of Business and Trade (DBT), the body charged with growing the UK’s exports. The event also led to another local company, Armagh’s Burren Balsamics, winning first-time business with Mexico’s most prestigious department store.

“The Europ chief sampled Irish Black Butter at the event in London and was interested in adding my product to his extensive portfolio of foods from the UK and Europe. He proposed distributing the sauce initially to at least six food stores in the Dallas Metroplex and a similar number in other cities around the state.

“It is an immensely exciting development for us in what is the second biggest state in the US and one which has historic links with Northern Ireland,” adds Alastair. “The business link will give us a significant foothold in Texas and especially the huge Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area. It’s the fourth biggest urban area in the US with a population of around seven million,” he adds.

The deal in Texas follows Irish Black Butter linking up with a company based in Boston and New York City to supply the sauce for hampers shipped throughout the US. He’s also confident a trip to Nashville, Tennessee will yield new business in another state with strong links to Northern Ireland. The Co Antrim enterprise, in addition, also recently won repeat business for the sauce the prestigious shop at the Houses of Parliament in London.

“Our sales outside Northern Ireland have been growing steadily since the pandemic and everything is very encouraging,” Alastair continues. “It’s exciting for an artisan venture like Irish Black Butter. But it has required a tremendous amount of hard work, diligence and patience over the years. He’s the first to admit that running an artisan business is a tough and often lonely existence. While he has an immensely supportive family around him, the Portrush entrepreneur still spends his time behind the wheel, in the air and on the phone in pursuit of sales for the product.

He’s driven the length and breadth of the island of Ireland and much of Britain in building up a customer base for an idea he came up in 2017 and was helped to become a commercial product by chef Paul Clarke, the managing director of En- Place Foods in Cookstown and CRAIC Foods in Craigavon. “I drove around 50,000 miles last year and that’s more than the circumference of the globe,” Alastair laughs. “Creating awareness of what the product is, especially in the US and other global markets, is quite a challenge for an artisan business,” he says. “But there’s no easy way to success, no magic solution in artisan food,” he continues. “There’s just no alternative to hard work on the road,” adds Alastair.

A good beef burger is one of the most popular items Northern Irish people enjoy, I wonder if it was a choice between a burger and an Ulster Fry which people would choose? This is why burgers feature so prominently in local food stores and on many restaurant menus. It’s a very convenient, tasty and nutritious meal, particularly when crafted from locally sourced meat, the world’s best.

A local company which really is a master of the burger market is ABP Linden Foods in Dungannon. Linden’s command of this delicious dish was highlighted last week when the Tyrone meat processor won the award for ‘Britain’s Best Burger at the highly influential Meat Industry Awards, a glittering event in the UK industry, the country’s leading food innovation sector and one of the top exporters.

Beef processing, of course, is our biggest food sector, one that’s worth around £1billion annually and a major export earner with sales as far as China and Japan. I also noticed a menu from a high-end restaurant in one of the French rugby centres promoting Himalayan salt-aged beef from Hannan Meats in Moira.

 I congratulate the ABP Linden team on this outstanding success. ABP Linden Foods won Britain’s Best Burger for its Marks & Spencer Collection, British Wagyu Burgers with Salt & Cracked Black Pepper. It’s further evidence of the longstanding business relationship between the Dungannon company and M&S. M&S regularly turns to Linden for ideas which will captivate shoppers across the UK. It’s an excellent example of the confidence which top supermarkets have in the ability of our companies to come up with new tastes for customers. Beef processing here is focused on innovation and is consumer-led, a successful approach which is a role model for other companies especially artisan and smaller enterprises.

Linden, furthermore, is a fine example of how a progressive company can develop relationships with suppliers, especially farmers, to help ensure their growth in both short and long-terms. It has a strong track record of working with suppliers to help in developing unique products for the most discerning markets.

 ABP Linden Foods – in collaboration with M&S – set out to push the boundary of beef that was available in retail shelves.  The aim was to develop something new and different that other retailers weren’t doing at the time. The result was Wagyu beef, an exquisitely marbled lean cut.

M&S makes a hugely important contribution to the local food and drink industry…and has done over many years. I am delighted to say that the farms that supply Wagyu to ABP Linden are all situated in Northern Ireland where fertile grass pastures enable the cattle to be reared in a natural, stress-free environment. A strict rearing protocol on the farms means the beef is produced in a sustainable way. A carbon reduction programme is
in place with regenerative practices to take care of the land. Whilst efficiency measures minimise waste. Important considerations in line with the sharpening focus on environmental sustainability.

The strength of our beef industry was also evidenced by the shortlisting of Dunbia in Dungannon and Downpatrick’s Finnebrogue Artisan in the Meat Industry Management Awards for innovative products for supermarket chains such as the Co- op and Iceland.

An interesting initiative launched last week is the Nature Friendly Farming networks report, Striking the Balance. I was lucky enough to be at the launch of this initiative which has come up with a new metric for measurement of success on farm, namely Maximum Sustainable Output. Over the last five years they have measured how farm businesses can improve their commercial performance, if output levels are sustained through naturally available resources. The report looks at several case studies, a large lowland beef farm, a small lowland sheep farm, a medium sized mixed farm and a medium sized dairy farm and highlights that there is a point where commercial returns are maximised using natural processes.

The report challenges the assumption that an increase in output will result in a proportional rise in commercial returns and argues that production that effectively harnesses natural resources will be more efficient and profitable than that which depends on corrective inputs to substitute for an asset base that is degraded or inadequate. To find out more search Striking the Balance at www.nffn.org.uk.

Irwin’s Bakery in Co Armagh has won with Waitrose to secure a new listing for its Together-branded cranberry & orange super seeded loaf. The bread is now being stocked in 300 Waitrose stores and strengthens the Portadown-based bakery’s existing relationship with the retailer, which currently lists six Irwin’s lines, including two other fruited breads.

Food NI member Irwin’s launched the Irwin’s Together range in 2021, following over £500,000 investment in R&D. And since then, Irwin’s has increased its share of the speciality bread market with a five per cent growth in the fruited category.

“This latest business win demonstrates our continued success in creating demand for speciality breads among GB consumers,” said Chloe Ormiston, category & shopper insights manager at Irwin’s Bakery. “In a challenging market with changing shopping behaviours, Irwin’s is passionate about giving added product benefits to consumers. “Increasingly we’ve seen a rebalancing of what consumers deem as important, with value, health, practicality, and enjoyment all in play.

“We’ve also seen a decline in traditional breakfast choices, with a switch to morning goods options driven by health and convenient indulgence. “This research by Kantar has driven our desire to bring excitement to the fruited and morning goods categories, delivering great-tasting products that consumers are asking for. “The development of this new style of fruit loaf, with added seeds and grains, opens up the business to a new market, giving us the opportunity to engage with a younger audience who wouldn’t normally consider a traditional fruit loaf.”

ALDI Ireland has agreed a major new deal with Bangor-based Clandeboye Estate Yogurts worth more than £8.6 million. Clandeboye is a Food NI member.

The deal was announced as part of ALDI’s announcement of four new contracts with suppliers from across Ireland, worth more than €26 million. Clandeboye has been working with ALDI for more than 10 years. This new two-year deal worth £8.6m will see the Bangor-based supplier continue to supply ALDI Ireland with granola and Greek style craft yoghurts, as well as supplying ALDI UK stores for the first time. The international expansion should allow the supplier to grow its sales volumes by more than 450% and expand its 20-strong workforce.

 Clandeboye Estate has a unique history. The late Lady Dufferin, part of the Guinness family who owned the estate, started the yogurt business in 2007 to add value to the milk from the pedigree cows which graze on the estate. Initially, the products were sold from their own little honesty shop and St George’s Market in Belfast. Products are made using an Authentic Greek Style method, which is unique in Ireland.

 Announcing the new contract with Clandeboye, Colin Breslin, Managing Director of Buying and Services, ALDI Ireland, said: “At ALDI, we are committed to supporting our Irish producers, meaning our customers can enjoy the very best products the island of Ireland has to offer, and our suppliers can reach new markets with their produce.

“We have worked with Clandeboye Estate Yogurts Dairies for almost ten years already, and this new deal we are announcing today is testament to the partnership we have built. The scale of this investment, worth more than £8.6 million, shows how much we value our relationship with Clandeboye. We’re delighted to be able to help them expand their offering across our UK stores, as well as across our stores in the Republic of Ireland, and are delighted this should enable them to grow their workforce.”

 Bryan Boggs, General Manager, Clandeboye Estate Yogurts, added: Clandeboye’s partnership with ALDI over the years has been absolutely central to our growth, including the recent opening of a new state of the art creamery on our farm here in Co. Down. We are grateful for the loyalty ALDI show to local suppliers and hope our authentically strained products continue to add to their offering across Ireland and the UK. Key to us is maintaining really high quality as production grows and working with organisations like ALDI that understand this is so important.”

NORTHERN IRELAND’S FAVOURITE ICE CREAMS OF 2023 REVEALED

• Double Cream Vanilla is named as Northern Ireland’s most loved ice cream flavour of 2023
• Toffee-popcorn is this year’s fastest growing flavour, while the candyfloss-flavoured Unicorn has entered the top 10 for the first time
• Sunday is our favourite day to buy an ice cream
• Pensioners prefer pokes, while Gen Z and millennials opt for tubs and big portions

As a not-so-sunny summer draws to a close, Morelli’s Ice Cream, Ireland’s oldest ice cream producer, has revealed 2023’s most popular ice cream buying trends of sweet treat fanatics across Northern Ireland.

2023 sales data from Morelli’s Ice Cream shows:

• Double Cream Vanilla is Northern Ireland’s favourite flavour, followed by Honeycomb
• Newer flavours have entered the bestseller charts this year, led by the candyfloss-flavoured Unicorn
• Ice cream preferences have a generational divide as Gen Z and millennials opt for large tubs, while pensioners prefer pokes
• More ice cream is sold in Portrush and Portstewart than anywhere else in Northern Ireland
• The most popular day for an ice cream is Sunday
• Double Cream Vanilla is the most popular flavour everywhere apart from Derry/Londonderry and Armagh, where they prefer Honeycomb

A nation of traditionalists

Double Cream Vanilla remains the nation’s sweetheart as it continues to hold the title of Northern Ireland’s top ice cream flavour. The old favourite is followed closely by Honeycomb, with both flavours accounting for 50% of Morelli’s total sales across Northern Ireland.

The weird and wonderful

Morelli’s candyfloss-flavoured ice cream, Unicorn, has edged Bubblegum out of the top ten best-selling flavours of the year. Unicorn’s sweetness, mixed with its vibrant colours, has resulted in the flavour becoming a firm favourite this summer.

Summer’ 23 was a season of new flavours, which proved popular with Northern Ireland’s ice cream connoisseurs. Morelli’s launched several new flavours, including Butterscotch and Cheeky Monkey (Chocolate Ice Cream with a Banana Ripple). One of its newest flavours, Toffee Popcorn, piqued the interests of many ice cream fans, with sales increasing by 12% of the later part of the summer.

Location, location, location

In four counties, Double Cream Vanilla tops the bestseller charts. This differs in Armagh and Derry-Londonderry, where Honeycomb is the bestseller. Derry-Londonderry’s tastes differ from the rest of the country when it comes to the top three flavours; it’s the only place where chocolate isn’t in the top three bestselling flavours. The maiden city prefers Raspberry Ripple.

There is one thing everyone in Northern Ireland does agree on, and that’s that Sundays are for scoops. A high percentage of Morelli’s sales take place on a Sunday, more than any other day of the week.

When it comes to where the most ice cream in Northern Ireland is purchased, there’s one clear winner. The North Coast has every other part of the country licked, as 30% of Morelli’s sales take place in Portrush and Portstewart.

How do you take yours?

The famous tub and cone debate can be put to bed for another year, as Morelli’s reveals that tubs account for 60% of its ice cream sales in 2023, ahead of cones at 40%. A generational divide is also emerging, with the majority of cone sales coming from pensioners, whilst people aged between 18-45 preferred tubs and larger servings.

Commenting on this year’s ice cream trends, Daniela Morelli-Kerr from Morelli’s Ice Cream said:

“While traditional flavours like Vanilla and Honeycomb remain popular, we’re seeing a real shift towards more modern flavours like Unicorn and Toffee-Popcorn. We believe this is being driven by social media trends and a desire for ice cream that not only tastes good but looks good too.

“There are many highlights of working in ice cream production, but a highlight for the Morelli’s team is the opportunity to create these weird and wonderful new flavours. While it’s these flavours that grab the headlines in the ice cream world, our sales data shows that we still have a soft spot for traditional flavours that are being enjoyed in tubs and cones across the country, mostly on a Sunday!”

The sales figures have been released by Morelli’s Ice Cream following a successful year for the company, expanding into Sainsbury’s, winning two 3-star Great Taste Awards and a gold Irish Quality Food and Drink award for its Dunnes Stores range. The brand also collaborated with Hartley’s Jelly at the start of summer 23’ with a hamper competition.

Speaking on the company’s recent successes, which include winning contracts, awards and accolades from the food industry in Northern Ireland, Ireland and the UK, Daniela added: “2023 has been a great year for Morelli’s Ice Cream. From securing a deal with Sainsbury’s stores across Northern Ireland, to winning two 3-star Great Taste Awards – it’s safe to say we are thrilled with our progress this year and we’re grateful to our customers for their continued support.”

Food NI member Noisy Snacks, from Dungannon, is making considerable noise after bagging a supply deal worth up to £500,000 with Tesco. The Tyrone company, founded in 2018, will supply its full range of pulse-based healthy snacks to 688 Tesco Stores across the United Kingdom and 100 in the Irish Republic.

Neil Hubbard, commercial director of the firm, described the new deal as ‘game changing’ for the growing business: “Thanks to Tesco we will be effectively doubling our sales. This will really provide us with a solid platform to grow right across the UK and Ireland.”

“I can’t speak highly enough of the Tesco team who have made this possible. They have worked seamlessly and tirelessly across their GB and Ireland teams to make this happen. From our conversations with them they were really keen to support Northern Ireland indigenous suppliers with the potential to supply Tesco’s huge customer base. They have, of course, a long-standing track record in this regard, but we’ve found them a delight to deal with.”

Noisy Snacks’ award-winning range includes broad beans, chickpeas and peanuts, all of which are vegan, gluten free and high in protein and fibre. The range comes in 25g, 100g and 150g bags.

Michael Crealey, buying manager from Tesco, said there was a huge demand for healthier snacks that could be consumed at home or on the go: “Within Tesco we have been supporting Northern Ireland suppliers for more than two and half decades now and it has been amazing to see so many household brands making it onto the shelves of Tesco right across Britain, NI and the Republic as testament to the levels of innovation and quality that are evident within the Northern Ireland food and drink sector.”

Noisy Snacks are currently available in Tesco stores in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.