Within the Irish food and drink sector, usage of artisan products continues to improve, with the increasing confidence of Irish consumers in 2015 helping to boost usage of artisan food, as well as sales of artisan food retailers.

• What types of food specialists do Irish consumers use? – Which types of artisan food prove to be most popular among Irish consumers? Which factors encourage consumers to use one type of artisan food provider over another?

• Which factors do Irish consumers consider important when shopping for artisan food? – Is price the key concern, or are qualities such as provenance and production technique important to Irish consumers?

• Compared to supermarkets, what are Irish consumers’ attitudes towards artisan retailers? – Do consumers see artisan retailers as having better quality? Do they find shopping in artisan stores to be convenient?

• Which factors would encourage consumers to shop more with food specialists/artisan retailers? - Would factors such as a click and collect service help to boost consumer usage of artisan retailers?

• This report will examine the sale and consumption of specialist food (artisan food) sold in both NI and RoI.

• The word ‘artisan’ is descriptive of a food that is unique, usually handmade with a distinctive taste and flavour and with its own ‘persona’, which can cover a range of products such as breads, meats, cheeses, preserves and produce (Teagasc 2012).

• The Irish food writer, John McKenna, (author of the Bridgestone Guides) measures artisan food by the test of the four Ps: the Personality of the producer, the Place it comes from, the Product provided and the Passion that goes into it.

• Artisan food is defined by its commitment for superior food making, which is claimed to result in better flavour or taste. Artisan food is also defined by the skills and beliefs of those who make the food. Typically the artisan producers seek out the best available ingredients and make their food using non-industrial and artisan techniques (according to the TASTE Council).

• Bord Bia has classified artisan food producers within the category of speciality food businesses. Speciality food businesses, as defined by Bord Bia, are micro and small firms with individual turnover levels of between €100,000 and €3.5 million per annum.

• Two key bodies for artisan foods in Ireland are the TASTE Council and Slow Food International:

• The TASTE Council was established in 2003 and is a voluntary representative group of the smaller food business sector, made up of largely local, artisan and speciality food producers. It engages with relevant government departments and agencies, non-governmental organisations and education establishments to promote the interests of the traditional, artisan and speciality food-producing and farming sector and to assist in its strategic development to maximise its current and potential contribution to Ireland’s food and agricultural economy, society, culture and environment.

• Slow Food International was founded in 1989 and is a non-profit organisation. It is an international organisation that has a presence in both RoI and NI. It is a global organisation that has supporters in 150 countries around the world who share an interest in good food and are committed to their community and the environment. Every Slow Food group in each country is called a convivium. A convivium is what Slow Food calls a local group. Each convivium has a leader and a committee and these people make up the membership of Slow Food.

• Slow Food also has an ‘Arc of Taste’ that involves projects that rediscover, catalogue, describe and publicise forgotten foods. Today the Arc of Taste includes 1,000 products from more than 50 countries that are endangered by industrial agriculture, environmental degradation and standardisation. The projects aim to support the continuation of the few remaining producers, and build a sustainable future for these foods.

For the purposes of this report, Mintel commissioned exclusive online consumer research into Irish consumers’ consumption of and attitudes towards artisan food. The research was carried out by Toluna on behalf of Mintel in March 2015.

A total of 1,250 internet users aged 16+ in RoI and 750 internet users aged 16+ in NI were asked questions including:

“Which, if any, of the following specialist/artisan food and drink retailers have you shopped at in the last 3 months?”

“When purchasing food products from specialist/artisan stores, which of the following factors are most important to you?”

“Thinking specifically about specialist/artisan food retailers (eg bakers, butchers, delis etc) do you agree or disagree with the following statements?”

“What might encourage you to start shopping or to shop more often at food and drink specialists/artisans?”

The results from this survey are discussed in The Consumer sections of this report.

Please note that the results presented in The Consumer sections of this report relate to the usage and habits of Irish internet users only, and do not account for the behaviours of non-internet users. Eurostat (January 2015) highlights that 80% of RoI consumers have used the internet in the last 12 months, while the ONS (May 2014) highlights that 79% of NI consumers have used the internet.

Please note that in the Market Size and Forecast section of this report, data is forecast by projecting how this particular market will progress based on various independent macroeconomic variables. Mintel uses economic data collected on inflation, population, exchange rate and GDP to run a multivariate linear regression and trend function. With this function Mintel is able to forecast future market sizes and interpret the results based on the above variables including other independent factors that could change the future market (economic data is collected from NISRA, ONS, CSO and other statistical sources.)

In compiling this report, Mintel has gathered data from separate NI and RoI sources (eg NISRA – Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and CSO – Central Statistics Office). In some cases, therefore it has not been possible to provide comparable data for each region.

For the purposes of this report:

• Ireland refers to the island of Ireland

• NI refers to Northern Ireland

• RoI refers to the Republic of Ireland

• Therefore, ‘Irish consumers’ refers to both NI and RoI consumers.

Mintel also draws consumer insight from other sources including Mintel’s Inspire database and previous Mintel reports from the UK and Ireland.