Twelve companies are now involved in importing Polish food to service the tastes of the estimated 200,000 Poles who live here, it emerged at the SHOP 2006 exhibition yesterday.
The importance of the niche market was marked by an official Polish Department of Agriculture stand at the event, which will run for the next two days.
"While there are more of our people in Britain and France than here, Ireland is emerging as an important market for our producers," a spokeswoman said.
Magdalena Krzeminska, who works for meat company Sadrob, said she had been asked to come to the event because of the growing market here for Polish products. "It is not just for the Polish residents here but for people from other backgrounds as well and the Irish seem to like our food too," she said.
Brian R Doyle of Kelly Hunter Trading Ltd, Stradone, Co Cavan, said his company imported 160 lines of Polish products for distribution to the major supermarket chains. "We have invested €1 million in this venture and so far it is working well because the demand is here," he said.
Mr Doyle travels regularly to Poland and researches what is popular, finds the manufacturers and arranges importation. There were three container loads of Polish food coming in weekly, he said, with at least another dozen importers and he expected the trade to increase.