Vol. 451 No. 4
38 Mr. H. Byrne asked the Minister for the Marine the views, if any, he has on whether Bord Iascaigh Mhara's home market promotion activity has decreased; and the plans, if any, he has to address this in view of serious competition from other product sectors. [6626/95]
BIM's current marketing brief spans both home and export markets, and activity levels are dictated by a number of factors including funding, priority markets and the overall supply and demand situation internationally. In recent years home market promotions have increased with the objective of increasing per capita consumption of seafood. Promotions include Focus on Fish Week held in October, the annual schools seafood cookery competition as well as a range of programmes in support of the retail, catering and tourism industries.
We are conscious of the need to increase promotional efforts on the home market even further. Such promotions form an integral part of the generic promotion initiative over the next five years for which EU funding of almost £2 million is being made available under the Operational Programme for Fisheries. The aim is to increase the regularity of seafood consumption, and encourage a target of two seafood meals a week. The targeted increase over the period of the Operational Programme is 0.2 kg per head per year, to achieve a level of almost 10 kgs per head by the year 2000.
