YOUNG AND OLD WINNERS AT BORD BIA INDUSTRY AWARDS - Two Irish companies, one young and the other very old, were among the winners at Bord Bia's food and drink industry awards in Dublin last night. One is revolutionising an old breakfast favourite, while the other sells dairy based deserts to the Ritz Hotel. This year, the award categories were based on six consumer lifestyle trends recently identified in a global research initiative commissioned by Bord Bia.
The agri-food sector is responsible for 8% of GDP and 10% of Irish exports - totalling €8 billion in value. Goodbody Stockbrokers food analyst Liam Igoe says this year the judges were looking for product innovation and new ideas geared to modern lifestyles. He said that Irish food and drink companies are proving to be very innovative as they seek room on supermarket shelves.
Flahavan's is an Irish company which has been around since the late 1700s and last night it won the 'Life on the Go Award' for its microwavable quick oats products. John Flahavan, managing director of the company says the product comes in single serving sachets and portable pots. They are designed to fit into people's busier life-styles and are easier and faster to prepare. He says that porridge has had quite a renaissance over the last few years and is now very fashionable.
The 'Real Thing Award' was presented to Cork's Glenilen Farm for its yoghurts and dessert range. Glenilen Farm was a regular dairy farm which transformed itself into a cuisine dairy produce company and it is run by the Kingston family. Valerie Kingston says the family started making cheeses and yoghurts and sold them first at local country markets. Since the business started to grow, the farm has now branched out into cheese-cakes, mousses and other desserts as well as butter and cheese.
***
STOCKS MARKETS SUFFER MORE FALLS - It has continued to be very choppy on global markets with Japan's Nikkei index down over 2% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down more than 3% this morning. These falls came after the big plunges last night on Wall Street which saw the Nasdaq drop 2.25% and the Dow Jones make take its biggest one day hit since the height of the financial markets crisis in August as it fell 2.6%. The slide came after two of America's biggest banks were downgraded by a major investment house. Citigroup's shares fell 6.8% and Bank of America dropped 5.4%. Sentiment on those shares spread throughout the financials with J P Morgan - which has been profitable - falling 5.7%. The slide in the US spread to afternoon trading in Europe with share indexes down 2%. Around €2 billion was wiped off the value of the ISEQ as it fell more than 2% in value yesterday, with the banks falling the most.
MORNING BRIEFS - On the currencies this morning, the euro is worth $1.4437 and 69.47 pence sterling. New York Crude Oil, which had fallen back from its yesterday morning high of more than $96 a barrel was back close to $94 this morning in Asia trade.
***Australia's third richest man, Richard Pratt, has just been fined $36m Australian dollars (€23m) for his company's role in a price-fixing cartel in the cardboard box market. It was the highest ever fine of its type in Australia with Pratt's Visy Industries colluding with its main rival on how to manage price increases in pubs, car parks and motels. But Pratt will not find the fine to onerous to pay. His personal fortune comes in at €3.4 billion.
