Galway Seafood Producers, Claire Colohan, Galway Food Co. and Richard Collins, Saile presented their latest product innovations to a panel of experts for live feedback.
Six of Ireland’s SME seafood producers from the West of Ireland were given the opportunity to put their latest product offering under the microscope at BIM’s Seafood Innovation Academy workshop in Athenry, Galway this week (Thursday 23 March 2017). This is the latest in a series of innovation workshops, organised by BIM, the seafood development agency, targeted at seafood processors in a bid to strengthen their internal innovation processes, new product development and add value to their products. This session offered each company the opportunity to present their latest product innovations to a panel of market experts for their feedback and was facilitated by experienced retail consultant, James Burke & Associates.
Each of the six seafood processors was asked to present their latest seafood product to the panel of experts from the retail and food service sectors. They were given ten minutes to present, followed by a further five minutes of questions from the panel. Live industry feedback of this sort is vital in the development of new products that will work on the market.
Kenneth O’Connor, the head of SuperValu’s Food Academy was on hand to provide feedback from a retail perspective while the insights offered by Mark Kelly, Sous Chef at the Clayton Hotel, Galway addressed foodservice expectations.
Speaking after the workshop, Aileen Deasy, Seafood Innovation Academy Co-ordinator, BIM said, “Today was a real success for each of the participants. They have all worked really hard with the technologists in BIM’s Seafood Development Centre and their Key Account Manager to get to this stage and they presented some exciting new seafood products. The feedback and advice from the panel will now feed into the next development stages and each of the companies can look forward to bringing very innovative new products to both the retail and foodservice markets in the coming months.”
This workshop was targeted specifically at SME’s or seafood processors with turnovers less than €2.5 million and focused on added value products and explored exporting potential.
The participating companies were:
Seafood Academy Group Shot:
Back row (L to R) Mairtin Walsh, BIM, James Burke, Programme Facilitator, Eithne Dixon, Erris Seafood, Claire Colohan, Galway Food Co., John Thornton, Yumi Oysters, Westport, Katie Healy, BIM,
Front row (L to R) Richard Collins, Saile, Mary Morgan Lyons, Sealyons Carrigholt, Co. Clare, with Seafood Producer David Downes, Sligo and Aileen Deasy, BIM at the BIM Seafood Academy West Workshop in the Raheen Woods Hotel, Athenry . Photo: Andrew Downes
