A major new advertising campaign was launched in Tokyo this afternoon in an effort to persuade the Japanese public to buy Irish seafood products.
Four Irish sea-food companies have come together under the Delicious Ireland brand to promote their products.
The campaign was launched by Minister Micheál Martin as part of this week’s Irish trade mission to Japan and China.
With a population of almost 130m people, Japan is the largest consumer of seafood in the world. Every year Norway exports €450m worth of seafood to Japan and now the Irish are targeting some of that business.
Four Irish sea-food companies, who normally compete against each other, have formed an alliance to capture a share of the market.
The four companies, Atlanfish, Fastnet mussels, Kinvara smoked salmon and Shellfish De Lar Mer have teamed up with the Diagio Group which owns the Guinness brand. In Japan, Guinness is sold in some 20,000 outlets across the country.
Diagio will actively promote the seafood range to its customers using the slogan ‘good with Guinness.’
The Delicious Ireland Campaign is hoping for sales of €10m for the first year.
Minister opens Glen Dimplex office
Earlier, Mr Martin formally opened the new Tokyo offices of Irish manufacturer, Glen Dimplex.
The ceremony took place as part of a week-long trade mission to Japan and China, organised by Enterprise Ireland.
The minister described Glen Dimplex as a flagship example of Irish enterprise.
Founded in 1973, the Glen Dimplex group is now the world's largest electrical heating manufacturer and it holds significant market positions in the worldwide domestic appliance industry.
With an annual turnover of €1.5bn, the group employs 8,500 people.
The Japanese operation will market and distribute the group’s electric fire and heater range in a country where 1.2 million new homes are built every year.
Since launching on the Japanese market two years ago turnover has grown to €30m.
