Ashtown Host Enterprise Ireland/ Genesis Beef SME Workshop

Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre held a two day workshop on June 26th and 27th as part of the Enterprise Ireland/ Genesis - Strategic Management Development Programme for the SME Beef Processing Sector. The programme aim is to improve the skills of the owner / managers within the Irish SME Beef Processing Sector, to enable them to profitably navigate significant change and achieve sustainable growth by extending their product portfolios and securing export sales. A group of 12 beef processor companies were selected by Enterprise Ireland for the programme which is spread over 6 workshops with Genesis having overall responsibility for running the programme. Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre was chosen to host the second workshop which covered the areas of ‘Production Management & Optimisation’.

Teagasc, AFRC were delighted to be asked to present this short course and for maximum effect organised the workshop into ‘theory’ presentations in the morning in conjunction with practical demonstrations in the afternoon in Ashtown’s Pilot Plant. Speakers at the workshop chaired by John Rae (Teagasc, AFRC) included Aidan Maloney (Teagasc, Grange Beef Research Centre), Tony Kenny and Paul Allen (Teagasc, AFRC) with guest speakers Cecil Alexander and Jim Nugent from the Department of Agriculture, Steen Pedersen of DMRI, Alan Ryan of SEI and Paul Brougham of Ecolab.

The workshop was well received by the participant companies and they next go on to an overseas visit to St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, USA.

Participant companies attending the ‘theory’ morning session at Teagasc, Ashtown Food Research Centre

Tony Kenny and Paddy Ward (Teagasc, AFRC) guiding attending companies through an afternoon practical session