Ireland can double its exports to Argentina, Chile and Brazil to a value of €500 million over the next five years, according to the Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
Mr Michael Ahern is accompanying the President, Mrs McAleese and an Enterprise Ireland trade delegation to South America. On Tuesday he officially opened Grafton Recruitment's inaugural foreign language school in Santiago.
A group of 20 business people are using the Presidential visits to the three countries to make contacts and finalise deals. Last year Irish exports to Chile alone were worth an estimated €36 million, mostly chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Imports to Ireland from Chile were valued at €37 million, 84 per cent of it wine. This figure accounts for 22 per cent of Irish wine imports and makes Chile level with Australia as the main supplier to the Irish market.
One of the exporters sealing a deal in Chile this week is Datac Control International of Dublin. The company makes remote control and monitoring equipment for energy and utility assets.
Mr Cyril Kerr, Datac Control's managing director, said a local gas company was taking one of its products in a multimillion euro contract. "Being on this trade mission with the President has given us the credibility to pull off a deal," he said.
Ms Niki Sweetnam of Irish Thoroughbred Marketing of The Curragh, Co Kildare, has visited five stud farms in Argentina and this week was meeting horse breeders in Chile before moving with the Presidential party to Brazil on Wednesday. She is hoping to open doors in South America where the breeding industry used to look towards Ireland but has lately turned towards the United States.
"We would like to see more Irish stallions shuttle down here for our winter after covering mares in Ireland in summer and also brood mares being introduced. While they look to the States, Ireland is their ideal. It just seems so inaccessible to them - a little island and hard to get to. It was a real pleasure to meet stud owner Carlos Hirmas here in Chile as he brings two stallions over from Ireland every year."
Also on the trade mission is Vision, a business consultancy which has long established links with Chilean Senator Fernando Flores, a former minister in the Allende government, who spent many years since the coup in California.
It was there that Vision's chairman Billy Glennon linked up with him and they merged companies in 2000.
In 2002 Vision in Chile went into profitability, he said here this week, and was now looking towards moving forward. The combination of Latin and Irish history made going after the US market a really interesting opportunity, according to Mr Glennon.
The culture and business styles of the two countries were similar, they shared the same entrepreneurial spirit and Spanish was now the second language in the US, he said.
Mr Michael O'Halloran of Audit Diagnostics of Cork, which exports primary medical care products to 86 countries worldwide, said companies like his were looking not for money from the Government but for loans to develop export markets.
He criticised Government funding for foreign companies but not Irish companies and called for more support for research and development in smaller industries.
Several educational institutions on the mission, which include Griffith College, the Dublin Institute of Technology and the English Language Institute, are finding the going harder.
Chile, some of them say, simply does not have the money to send students to far-away Ireland and lack of English language skills is a problem.
One trade delegate said there was plenty of interest in educational exchanges but there was no money in that.
