ABP Food Group has become the first Irish beef processor to launch in the South Korean market by securing an export agreement with K Meat, a premium meat importer with advanced sales channels across South Korea. This significant long-term supply agreement has seen ABP deliver three shipments to date from its locations in Tipperary, Monaghan and Wexford.
The official announcement will be made later this week as part of the trade mission to China and South Korea led by Charlie McConalogue TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Minister of State, Martin Heydon T.D.
As part of the first leg of the two-nation trip, members of the Ministerial trade mission joined ABP in China to visit its customer Dalin Rongze, a food service business servicing high-quality restaurants in Beijing, and AP Shanghai Food Company Limited in Shanghai, which supplies Fresh Hipo, a retail chain for groceries and fresh goods that has 273 self-operated stores, primarily located in tier-one and tier-two cities in China.
ABP has maintained a constant supply of beef to the Chinese market since the lifting of a restriction on Irish beef imports in May 2020, with all of ABP’s seven Irish sites producing beef products for China.
Martin McMahon, General Manager of ABP international sales, ABP Food Group said that extended their presence in Asia “marks a significant step forward for both ABP and the Irish beef sector as a whole”.
In May 2018, ABP became the first European beef processor to secure a contract in China when it secured an exclusive three-year agreement with Asian restaurant chain Wowprime Corporation. In 2019 the company reached a deal with Beijing Hopewise Ltd to launch a range of premium Irish beef products on JD.com, one of the largest business-to-consumer online retailers in China and a Fortune Global 500 Company.
