Northern Ireland Meat and Dairy Mission Visits NZ

15 January 2009

Northern Ireland Meat and Dairy Mission comes to New Zealand

Sharing best practice is the flavour of this year’s Northern Ireland meat and dairy mission to New Zealand. From 25 January to 2 February 14 UK meat and dairy industry specialists will be given the opportunity to learn from New Zealand experts in the agricultural sector.

With New Zealand as the world’s largest producer of internationally traded dairy products the Northern Ireland delegates will be learning from the best in the industry. The mission will visit the country’s main agricultural regions, travelling up the country from Christchurch to Wellington, Palmerston North, Hamilton and Auckland. Delegates will be meeting companies such as PGG Wrightson, Fonterra Research Centre, Kapiti Fine Foods, Waikato Innovation and Ancare amongst others.

The mission is being supported by Invest Northern Ireland with assistance from UK Trade and Investment’s Auckland office.

Paul Tuckley, Trade Development Manager at UK Trade and Investment said:

“Northern Ireland and New Zealand are both world leaders in dairy and meat production and so UK Trade & Investment are very pleased to have the opportunity to introduce some of the leading figures from the Northern Irish meat and dairy sector to their New Zealand counterparts.

The mission presents an opportunity to develop trade opportunities and collaborations between the two countries and to learn more about each other’s markets. We are looking forward to seeing some informative and productive meetings.

Several members of the Northern Ireland delegation are members of a new industry advisory panel that reports to the Northern Ireland Assembly and has a strong influence on policy development and as such they are keen to see examples of best practice from New Zealand.

The objective of the mission is for the members to see examples of best practice in all aspects of dairy and meat production. The delegation is also keen to see some of the latest techniques and technologies that are being developed and used in the New Zealand market, for example, genetics,
breed developments, farm/pasture/stock management, environmental issues, meat/dairy processing and production.”

Members of the mission come from a wide range of successful UK companies including food manufacturing, farmer owned co-operatives, meat processing and

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