Lyons Tea, HB Ice-cream and Siucra sugar are synonymous with being Irish, but you may be surprised to hear that they are not produced in this country. 

The Irish Independent tells us this morning that Irish consumers are spending millions on imported food stuffs that they wrongly believe are Irish.

The marketing body Love Irish Food has said that we import at least €1.5billion worth of branded food products a year, but could easily substitute €300m of this with Irish products if consumers bought just two more homegrown items a week, it said. 

Their survey of 1,000 householders had found that 77% believed Lyons Tea was produced in Ireland – even though it"s actually packed in England for Dutch firm Unilever. Similarly, some 71% of consumers believe HB ice cream to be an Irish brand – though it too is made by Unilever in the UK 80% believe Siucra is Irish-made, though it"s actually grown and processed overseas and shipped here by German firm Nordzucker. 

Although research has shown that 85% of consumers like buying Irish-made food, this survey shows many have difficulty doing so.

Irish shoppers currently spend €7.1bn a year on food groceries, of which €3.3bn goes on branded goods and the other €3.8bn is spent on unbranded goods and supermarket own-brand products, new figures from Kantar World Panel show. But a massive 45% or €1.5bn worth of the branded goods we eat are imported, Love Irish Food said.