The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Ms Coughlan, is in Paris today to lead the Irish contingent at the Salon International de l'Alimentation (SIAL) food fair, where there are 5,200 exhibitors from 98 countries.
Nearly 140,000 people will attend the showcase for international food and drink companies, which is held every second year in the French capital.
Ireland has a smaller than normal contingent attending the fair, with ten major Irish food and drink companies, including seven beef companies, exhibiting on the Irish Food Board stand.
The Food Board has overseen a major drive in the French market to promote the sale of Irish beef, lamb and other products.
The French beef market has slipped into deficit in the last year and has been importing beef mainly from the Netherlands, which has been filling one quarter of the overseas need.
Consumption of beef in France has crept up above the levels in the year 2000 when the Continent was gripped by a BSE crisis.
Consumption in France nearly collapsed when beef from a BSE infected herd found its way into the food chain through one of the large supermarket chains.
Last year the Republic exported 24,000 tonnes of beef to France and it is on this sector that the new Minister will be concentrating her efforts later today when she visits the fair. Yesterday she attended her first meeting of EU farm ministers.