More than a hundred food and drink companies will be showcasing their new products and flavours at Bord Bia's Bloom Trade Breakfast tomorrow morning.
It brings together suppliers and industry heavyweights, like supermarket chains and restaurant and hotel owners.
Bord Bia says that the event has a proven track-record in helping to secure new business listings for exhibitors.
Up-and-coming brewery Fierce Mild is one example.
Following initial conversations made at Bloom last year, the non-alcoholic beer producer successfully launched a product range that is now delivered daily to over 200 stores nationwide.
Speaking to RTÉ Morning Ireland at the Phoenix Park, the company's CEO and co-founder Fergal Caroll said that "the timing felt right" with "the cultural shift our drinking habits" in Ireland.
After years of working in Australia and seeing the variety in the beer segment there, Fergal and his brother-and-law decided to create a local Irish brand in the market "dominated by multinationals".
Non-alcoholic beverages "is the fastest growing segment within the beer industry with alcohol consumption at a 20-year low down 33%", Fierce Mild’s CEO added.
"Our desire and our need to socialise and celebrate occasions is still there. That has not gone. We've definitely designed this brand and this beer to fit within Irish culture and where it's going."
At Bloom’s Trade Breakfast, food and drink businesses have a chance for an informal conversation with over 250 retail and foodservice companies, including Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Lidl, Musgrave and M&S.
With fierce competition in the dairy segment, establishing a brand in supermarket chains can be hard, said marketing manager at yogurt producer Killowen Farm Pauline Dunne.
"Approximately 70% of yogurt is imported… So for the Irish yogurt producers it's just about constantly pushing your brand."
Following the previous Trade Breakfast, the company managed to expand into Tesco UK, increasing the number of stores stocking its products from 250 to 850.
Killowen Farm has been managed by the Dunne family for nine generations.
It’s all about making the brand "sustainable" and "good-natured", Ms Dunne said.
"We have 300 cows, so it's the milk we're producing from those cows is what we're using to make Killowen Farm yogurt."
To certain extent business done at Bloom can shape what consumers might see on supermarket shelves or in restaurants, said Bord Bia’s foodservice manager Maureen Gahan.
Less processed, healthier foods are among recent food industry trends, presented at the festival.
"We do see that consumers are more and more concerned not just about where their food is coming from, but also how it's produced. So we're seeing definite drive and demand for clean label and 'better-for-you’ offerings."
Bloom Trade Breakfast is taking place for 13th time this year.
