This article is from page 11 of the 2012-06-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
LISDOONVARNA woman Birgitta Hedin-Curtin has been appointed as Ireland’s leading authority on organic fish.
Birgitta, who operates the Burren Smokehouse in Lisdoonvarna along with her husband Peter Curtin, was appointed by the Junior Minister at the Department of Agriculture, Shane McEntee (FG), to the newly formed Organic Focus organisation.
The organisation aims to coordinate business and government policy in the organic sector and Birgitta will have a key role in the way that the organic fish sector develops over the next few years.
According to the Burren Smokehouse funder, organic fish could become a major growth area in Clare in the years to come and could generate a large number of jobs.
“It is essential that you have a thriving organic sector, it showcases the entire food sector to foreign markets. The organic sector is a big focus for this and really does help to promote Irish foods abroad generally,” she said.
“Organic food is very important for County Clare but also for all of Ireland. The board is mainly made up of representatives from the business sector of the organic industry and the work will focus on helping to shape Government policy.
“Irish salmon production would not exist today if it wasn’t for the organic sector in the mid-1990s which kept it going. The weather conditions are difficult for salmon on the west coast but that gives us a higher class of salmon which means that we can charge a premium.
“Irish organic salmon has become a leader in the world market. It is being sought after worldwide at the moment. This can be built on. We have problems at the moment with licensing issues and that is holding things back at the moment but there are plans from the Department of Agriculture to address that.
“It needs to be addressed if there is to be a growth in the market. There is room for widening the production in the future and that can only be a good thing for the industry.”