EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner, Mr David Byrne, who has responsibility for animal welfare, is committed to preserving the diversity of food across the EU. "I have placed particular stress on the need to ensure that there are sufficient safeguards to facilitate the continued existence of a wide range of smaller, more traditional, food production processes and business," he says.
Commercial farmers may not like it but EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler's proposal to divert 20 per cent of direct aid now paid to farmers to rural development is good news for speciality food producers.
Food quality - together with animal welfare and the environment - is singled out to benefit from the funding. The Commissioner's view is that quality food, rather than food mountains and wine lakes, is what European consumers want in the future.
Ireland's speciality food producers - and there could be as many as a couple of hundred, ranging in size from one-person operations to medium-sized enterprises - fly the flag for the big commercial processors with their originality and innovation.
But they have been labouring under a raft of EU legislation that threatens to put many of them out of business because of the costs involved in complying with these standards.
However, the allocation of funding for food quality should mean that aid will be made available to them to help them comply with the regulations and, if necessary, upgrade their premises.
The Irish speciality market is worth about €250 million in a total food industry worth €8 billion, but the potential is great: the combined British and Irish speciality market is valued at €4 billion and is expected to grow by 65 per cent over the next 10 years.
In April, Bord Bia brought over 100 of these artisanal producers and their products to a symposium in Kinsale, Co Cork, where they showed their wares to a large number of international buyers and food writers.
"From the producers and buyers, the feedback is very positive," says Mr John McGrath, Bord Bia's marketing director. "From all sides, we are getting the fact that they were surprised at what was available in Ireland and that Ireland had got such a growing small food business."
The American buyers were especially impressed by the image presented by the producers and the quality of their ingredients; the Europeans stressed the need to develop tastes for the continental European market.
Dr Patrick Wall, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, concedes that the legal requirements for food producers are high and, for quality products such as these, they are even higher. It is his job to enforce the health and safety regulations and, where necessary, close down a premises.
"The increasing globalisation and the bigger multiples mean that any food business needs economies of scale to stay in business. Therefore, for survival, it's essential that the artisans' group gets together to share marketing costs and technical advice."
