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Supervalu has announced that it has signed a deal with Truly Irish Country Foods to provide rashers and sausages which are locally produced, fully traceable and 100 per cent Irish to its 194 independently owned stores across the country.

The launch is a major milestone in the Irish Pork Industry, which has seen the development of the Truly Irish Country Foods brand by Irish pork producers, in order to return a better share of the retail margin to Irish pig farmers. With people returning to home comforts in time of recession, the overall rashers and sausage markets are now worth €103 million and €79 million respectively.

Truly Irish Country Foods is the brand of the North South Pig Company Ltd, a company recently formed by the Pork Farmers of Ireland. The group has a total of 140 producers who supply their pork to the producing company, representing 70 per cent of pork producers in Ireland. The brand was developed in response to Irish consumers concerns about origin, labelling and quality of meat products.

The range of products now available in stores under the Truly Irish Country Foods brand includes traditional rashers, beechwood smoked rashers, maple cured rashers, premium sausages and jumbo sausages.  The new brand will guarantee that any consumer purchasing products from the range will get a 100 per cent produced Irish product and are Bord Bia Quality Assured. As a result, customers will put money back into their local community, thereby sustaining and creating jobs in the local economy. Truly Irish Country Foods estimates that the Irish pork industry currently supports 8,000 jobs alone.

The launch is being complimented by a new marketing campaign by Truly Irish Country Foods which is aimed at educating consumers about the benefits of purchasing Irish produce. The campaign will consist of TV, radio, newspaper, magazine and online advertising. In addition, it will also see local farmers promote their products in store across the country.

Commenting on the announcement, SuperValu Managing Director, Donal Horgan, said, "SuperValu has a long established policy of investing in local Irish produce whenever possible, thus providing the Irish consumer with top quality fresh Irish food at the best price possible as evidenced by our 'All we cut is our prices' value campaign launched last week.   

Our partnership with Truly Irish Country Foods is an exciting new initiative to give the public the locally produced pork that our customers are demanding, whilst also supporting the Irish food industry. Our commitment to Irish based producers includes combined Irish retail sales of €1 billion of fresh food in 2008.”

Jim McGrath, Chairman, Truly Irish Country Foods, added, "Truly Irish is not just a name, it’s our guarantee. In recent months pork products have really been in the limelight and years of market research have shown that Irish consumers have huge concerns when it comes to the country of origin of meat products. Our products address people’s concerns about origin, labelling and quality of their meat products. The success of our brand will quite simply mean that farming is once again an option for our young people as a career. I would strongly encourage the public to look for the truly Irish packaging on SuperValu shelves, as they are guaranteed not to be disappointed!"

During 2008 Musgrave, the SuperValu brand made a significant contribution to the Irish economy and Irish suppliers with 75 per cent of all products purchased on behalf of all its retail partners, either produced or manufactured in Ireland. This represents total purchases from Irish suppliers in excess of €2.85 billion at retail level, serving to both create and protect Irish jobs and livelihoods and also sustain the Irish community. SuperValu also has the biggest network of qualified butchers, with our 400 butchers employed across its network of 194 stores.

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