In support of our Irish manufacturer members, the Association hosted an Inward Buyer Event at the FTMTA premises in Naas on November 30th. The event was jointly organised by FTMTA and Enterprise Ireland and involved 40 UK visitors meeting with 13 Irish machinery manufacturers in the context of a machinery exhibition and seminars with presentations by the manufacturers. The UK group was made up mainly of large dairy farmers and some dealers. The Irish manufacturers who toke part in the event were Cross Agricultural Engineering, Dairymaster, Samco Agricultural Machinery Ltd., Abbey Machinery, Malone Engineering, O’Donovan Engineering, Keenan, Running Gear – Agri Spread, Hi-Spec Engineering Ltd, Tanco Autowrap and Dromone Engineering. Also, in attendance on the day were guest speakers, Nick Everington, Chief Executive of the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, Mansel raymond, Chairman of the National farmers Union, Anne Randles, Director of Administration in the Irish Dairy Board and Allan Wilkinson, Head of Agriculture at HSBC.
At this very focused event, there was an excellent display of Irish machinery at the Farm Machinery Industry Training Centre and the Association were happy to see the facility put to this use for the first time. The manufacturers who took part expressed themselves very happy with the event and FTMTA hopes to build on the relationship with Enterprise Ireland to further promote Irish farm machinery exports.
