Bord Bia teams with Guangzhou luxury hotel to promote Irish seafood

Bord Bia, Ireland’s food marketing agency, has sought to stoke Chinese hunger for Irish seafood with a promotion at the Xanadu Hotel, one of the most-expensive addresses in the wealthy southern city of Guangzhou. 

Located on the International Bio Island in the city’s Hai Zhu district, the hotel is hosting an Irish Seafood buffet lunch at CNY 148 (USD 20.63, EUR 21.27) that features Irish crab, oysters, whelks, and langoustines, also known as Dublin Bay prawns. The dinner option is charged at CNY 238 (USD 33.18, EUR 34.22), with the promotion running through the October National Day holiday period into November.  To further whet appetites for the offering, Bord Bia is offering each paying diner a gift bag proffered in a bespoke canvas tote, which includes a mouse pad with a map of the locations of Irish oyster farms.

Frequent lockdowns of cities and ports under the country’s zero-COVID policy have pushed some Irish exporters away from doing business in China. Irish oyster producer Belles Isle has stopped exporting oysters to China due frequent disruptions it suffered to its supply chains over the past two years, company CEO Des Moore told SeafoodSource.

“Nobody much has ventured back into China, as there are too many variables that aren’t stable. Meanwhile prices are going up and up and Europe is the focus,” he said.

Bord Bia marketing for the Xanadu event describes the air-freighted seafood served as coming from Ireland’s “calm, unpolluted waters.” However, Ireland’s Environmental Protection Agency has highlighted a decline in Ireland’s water quality due in part to run off from the country’s dairy farms, according to its 2021 Water Quality Report.

“Nutrient levels, predominantly from agriculture and wastewater, are too high in many of our waters, and in some areas, trends are going in the wrong direction. Nitrate levels in rivers, groundwater, and estuaries in the south, southeast, and east of Ireland are too high,” the report said.

Photo courtesy of Bord Bia