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THE MINISTER FOR Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock will today depart on a week-long Enterprise Ireland Functional Foods and Lifesciences trade mission to Japan.
The mission is focused on the particular potential for growth in these sectors in Japan, with 14 of Ireland’s leading and most innovative food and lifesciences companies taking part alongside Bord Bia and Teagasc.
During the mission, key meetings will take place between Irish companies and potential Japanese partners such as Suntory, Meiji, Terumo and Astellas Pharma as well as a Food Innovation Seminar and a Lifesciences Seminar for Irish and Japanese companies.
Sherlock will also undertake a number of stakeholder meetings, including some involving Japan Science and Technology Agency, the National Food Research Institute and the Riken Institute with the objective of increasing international research collaboration between Irish and Japanese companies and research institutes.
Functional foods
The Japanese market for functional foods is estimated to be worth €8.13 billion – with drinking yoghurts the largest sub-sector at €2.5 billion. Japan is also the second-largest pharmaceutical and medical device market in the world (valued at $96 billion in 2010).
“Supporting indigenous businesses to grow and export is central to the Government’s plans for recovery, growth and jobs. The objective of this trade mission is to continue delivering on these plans by highlight Ireland’s capabilities in food innovation and lifesciences technology. These two sectors are increasingly important in terms of Irish exports to Japan and offer significant potential for further growth in Japan.
“The innovative quality of Ireland’s food and lifesciences products, the strong Japanese demand and the active interest of Irish companies in doing business in Japan all combine to create significant potential for winning new business during this mission,” said Sherlock.
Significance of the Japanese market
The Minister said he was conscious of the “significance of the Japanese market” for Irish goods and services, which he said presents many opportunities for Irish companies. “In 2011 Ireland exported nearly €3 billion worth of goods and services to Japan making it our eleventh largest export market. A large proportion of our goods exports were accounted for by products in the pharmachem/medical devices sectors,” he said.
Enterprise Ireland’s Japan Director Eddie Hughes said Irish innovative food and lifesciences technology companies continued to be successful across the world, saying that Japan’s “sophisticated market” was closely matched by Ireland’s research and processing capabilities in these sectors.
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Maybe he’ll come down on the side of GM crops and do a dirty deal with the GM industry behind our backs and force GM legislation through the dail and then call for a debate after its railroaded through. Sound familiar? After the music industry debacle I would trust this guy to do anything in the interest of Ireland. Clientilism is his forte.
rest asured Sherlock will sell out to big business dispite or inspite depending on your view of what Irish people want.
So we are sending the minister with backward views of technology, the same one who brought in ACTA, to the most technologically advanced country in the world?
The headline may as well read ‘Sherlock sent on government paid holiday to Japan’
I would have kept that lad at home. I’m afraid he hasn’t his research done, again. Had we no one else to send?
Better if he stays in Japan and doesn’t come back.
Give Sherlock a one way ticket.
I wouldn’t send him to buy crubeens.
Likewise with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. I worry about the potential leader who stashed his funds in a off-shore tax haven first,and built his wealth on the backs of others misery and misfortune,and then exported Irish jobs to China, and the people still voted yes to tax hikes.
“Foreign trade missions may cost the taxpayer millions and have been touted as beneficial, but in reality do nothing to increase trade between Canada and partner nations, according to a University of British Columbia study.
UBC researchers Keith Head and John Ries analyzed Canada’s bilateral merchandise trade data for 181 countries between 1993 and 2003. Their findings appear in the August issue of the Canadian Journal of Economics.
Head and Ries looked at commodity and service trade and foreign direct investment during that period, using data from Statistics Canada and Eurostat, the statistical agency for the European Union, among other sources.
“When you look at the data carefully trade missions don’t seem to work,” says Head, professor of strategy and business economics at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
“What that implies is that the main cost of trade missions may not be financial, it may be the distraction of government leaders from their primary tasks,” says Head. “Instead of sorting through tricky issues involving hospital beds or highways, they are instead jetting around the world, taking pictures with world leaders, feeling important but accomplishing nothing.”
University of British Columbia
Just no. Why would you send him? Possibly one of the most ineffective TDs to be elected. His sole purpose is to keep Mallow hospital open. So when it eventually closes we may see the back of him. But some idiots will still vote for him
Lifesciences? Surely two words?
Japanese food is fantastic.., natural and healthy it avoids much of the bad diet that is a feature of Europe.
Let’s hope there will be some native Jap restaurants here soon!
This gimp is a minister now?
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