The ABP Foods Group, founded by Larry Goodman, has become the first Irish company to secure a deal to sell Irish beef in the US after the lifting of the EU-wide beef ban.

The company has announced a major partnership with one of the largest food distributors in the US.

The deal with Sysco will be worth around €15m over the course of this year, but could be even greater if demand for Irish beef grows.

Louth-based ABP will supply Sysco Metro New York and Sysco Boston with Irish beef, initially focussing on steakhouses and restaurants.

The first shipments are expected to begin in March.

The north-eastern US is the first area being targeted by ABP and Sysco because of the strong Irish and Irish-American communities there.

The arrangement came about as a result of the involvement of Pallas Foods, an Irish-based subsidiary of Sysco.

The first Irish beef that arrives in the US will be premium steak cuts but there is hope that the market will expand to allow the importation of ground beef as well.

Sysco is the largest company in the US selling and distributing food to restaurants, hospitals, schools and other prepared-food locations.

It is hoped that the first partnership to sell Irish beef in New York and Boston will soon expand to the rest of the US where Sysco has about 425,000 customers and 194 distribution facilities.

Irish beef is to be served in the United States for the first time in 17 years later tonight as part of a trade mission to promote the lifting of the EU-wide beef ban.

In Manhattan, a selection of award-winning American and international chefs will cook Irish beef at a special event.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney is taking part in the three-day trade promotion mission to the US ahead of the first shipment of Irish beef arriving for general sale.

Bord Bia representatives and Irish beef companies are accompanying Mr Coveney on the trip to New York, Boston and Washington DC.

They are meeting US meat buyers in the hope of securing contracts, as Irish beef becomes the first European beef to be sold in the country following the lifting of the ban put in place in January 1998 as a result of the BSE crisis.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney talks about lifting of US beef ban

Mr Coveney said that Ireland was the fourth largest beef exporting country "on the planet" and was now targeting the market with the biggest consumption of beef per capita.

He said as minister, he could assure US buyers and consumers that Irish food production operated to the highest safety controls.

He said the country had higher standards than others because if Ireland had a scare, the industry would be dramatically undermined, and that risk could not be afforded.

He said that beef was part of what Ireland is, a food-producing island, where "we know our cattle better than we know our people".

Tomorrow Mr Coveney will meet his US counterpart and give a speech to the World Bank on the Irish agri-food sector.

The US beef market could be a lucrative one for Irish producers as US beef prices are currently at a record high and the country consumes 11.5 billion kilos of beef a year, 10% of which comes from imports.