The competitiveness of the Irish food processing industry

Ways of measuring industrial competitiveness are discussed and an analysis of the competitiveness of the food sector as a whole and of three sub-sectors are presented. The techniques employed were Revealed Comparative Advantage and the Porter Diamond. \ud \ud Ireland had a strong competitive position in 1994 relative to our EU partners in the large food industry sectors, but when account was taken of the growth in these sectors the competitive position was weaker in that Ireland did not have a strong competitive position in high growth markets. However a later analysis of competitiveness in the prepared consumer foods sector in 1996 revealed a relatively strong position.\ud \ud Specific analyses of the sources of competitiveness of the shellfish, dairy and prepared consumer food sub-sectors revealed that the competitiveness of the shellfish sector was predominantly based on the quality of the raw material. The dairy industry’s competitiveness was positively affected by factor conditions in the Irish market, the operations of multinational companies, the strategic behaviour of Irish dairy companies and the Common Agricultural Policy. Major factors which contributed to the competitiveness of the prepared consumer foods sector were high quality raw materials, population changes and a dynamic retail sector in Ireland