FOOD
INNOVATION
Gary O’Meara, Manager at Meath Enterprise and Project Manager at Boyne Valley Food Hub
Feeding innovation
On a 20-acre site on the outskirts of Navan, Co
Meath, the wheels are in motion to create the Boyne
Valley Food Hub, a major project that aims to be to
food “what Silicon Valley is to technology” within the
next 10 years.
D
riven by Meath Enterprise
in conjunction with Meath
County Council and in
partnership with several
key stakeholders, the Boyne Valley
Food Hub will seek to accelerate
innovation and research through
collaborative partnerships with
a view to developing scalable,
sustainable and profitable food and
agri businesses with high growth and
export potential.
The site, which is owned by Meath
County Council, is located close to
the M3 motorway, 40 minutes from
Dublin Airport and 45 minutes from
Dublin Port.
“We are surrounded by eight of
the country’s leading universities
and a labour force of 910,000 people
all within a 45-minute radius,” says
Gary O’Meara, Manager at Meath
Enterprise and Project Manager of
Boyne Valley Food Hub, who expects
to have two or three anchor tenants
confirmed within the next few
months, including a food outsourcing
manufacturer and an international
food research and lab testing
company.
The hub will be developed in
four or five phases over the next
10 years to include incubation
space, outsourced food production,
manufacturing and packaging
facilities, industrial kitchens,
centralised distribution and storage,
a new product development and
innovation centre and a state-of-theart research and development facility.
Minister of State for Skills,
Research and Innovation Damien
English says: “The Boyne Valley Food
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Hub will be like the ‘dream team’,
bringing the highest talent together
from academia and industry to drive
change and create innovation.
“The Government wants to
encourage initiatives such as this
through our regional Action Plan
for Jobs and I expect the Boyne
Valley Food hub to be like one of the
existing national research centres
which can avail of funding through
Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish
Research Council and Enterprise
Ireland.”
Working in collaboration
O’Meara explains that the type of
collaboration needed to make the
food hub work is already happening
in Co Meath, which otherwise, as
a region, has all the necessary
ingredients to make the food hub a
success.
“We’ve got some world class
companies here to support us
including Alltech and Coca Cola.”
Epicom, which is breaking new
ground and new international
markets with its vast array of new
milk powder products, is already
a tenant in the enterprise centre in
Navan where it employs over 100
people.
“The company is a key partner
of Meath Enterprise and a strong
relationship with Dublin Institute
of Technology has developed as
a result, with students working in
the centre on real life food product
development projects as part of their
final year degree programmes,”
notes O’Meara.
Having benchmarked the concept
against other centres of excellence
around the world, O’Meara found
there were few so focused around
food. He believes the Boyne Valley
brand is already synonymous with
food quality internationally and will
be a strong selling point.
“University College Dublin
researchers were excavating near
Dowth in Co Meath and satellite
photos taken recently indicate that
this is the area where organised
farming began over 3,500 years ago.
Already the Boyne Valley brand is
recognised all over the world as far
as China,” he notes.
“By developing a world class
infrastructure and fostering a world
class culture of collaboration,
innovation and entrepreneurship,
we create a platform for developing
world class companies.
“At its very core will be to create
products that people actually want
and ask what does the world need
and look for when it comes to food.”
The Boyne Valley
Food Hub will be
like the ‘dream
team’, bringing
the highest talent
together from
academia and
industry to drive
change and
create innovation
Competing
on the
global stage
With Ireland scoring highly in the
‘best place to do business’ ranks,
Meath’s advantages as a location
for industry and indigenous
enterprise are hard to beat,
according to Jackie Maguire, CEO,
Meath County Council.
“Not only is Meath strategically
located in the greater Dublin area
– the fastest growing region in
Ireland – it is also positioned on the
rapidly expanding Dublin-Belfast
economic corridor,” she says.
“Meath is the ideal location
for the global Boyne Valley Food
Hub. The essence of the hub
is to support and promote the
development of innovative and
collaborative partnerships between
the relevant State agencies,
universities, research and funding
institutions and the private sector.
“The region is already home
to some of Ireland’s leading
multinationals, SMEs and start-ups
with high growth potential and they
are already competing successfully
in the global food markets.”
Meath County Council recently
launched its Economic Strategy
2015-2022 with a key focus to
ensure more sustainable job
creation whilst strategically
positioning Meath as a h X