Liffey Meats has signed a contract to supply one of France's largest retail groups with a range of Irish beef products.
The deal is with Intermarché, the fourth largest retail group in France, which holds over 13% of the market.
Food agency Bord Bia says this is the first time that an identified Irish beef range, produced entirely in Ireland, will be available to all outlets of a French retailer.
It says the contract follows extensive test marketing over the last year and significant investment by Liffey Meats in new processing and packaging capability.
Irish beef has become available in French retail outlets since autumn 2004. Before that virtually all beef sold in French supermarkets was French.
The Liffey Meats product range will be retail packed in Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan using the Darfresh system where individual consumer portions are vacuum packed and then further packed with an outer printed aluminium foil wrapping.
Bord Bia says a number of Irish food brands recently launched in the French market are also making 'considerable progress'. Speaking at the signing of the contract the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mary Coughlan, said the deal marked 'a new beginning' for Irish beef in France.
