How food commodities and nutrition programmes are contracted
Food procurement for public and humanitarian programmes is a commodity trade wrapped in a quality regime. The specification fixes the product in technical terms -- moisture content, broken grain or defect tolerances, protein or fat content, milling standards, and for fortified commodities the micronutrient premix and its dosage. Packaging is specified as tightly as the food: bag weight and material, marking, stacking strength and pallet configuration all appear in the tender, because a sack that fails in a warehouse loses the commodity it contains.
The commercial terms are shipping terms. Bids are almost always invited against defined delivery terms that decide who carries freight, insurance, port charges and inland transport, and a price that looks competitive under one term can be uncompetitive under another. Inspection by an independent surveyor at loading, certificates of analysis, phytosanitary and fumigation certificates, and a minimum remaining shelf life on arrival are conditions of payment rather than paperwork. Because commodity prices move, contracts frequently carry a validity window measured in days and price adjustment against a published index.
Nutrition programmes add a layer that pure commodity supply does not have. Therapeutic and supplementary foods are bought against product standards and supplier qualification schemes rather than open specification, and the list of qualified producers is short. Local and regional purchase policies, which favour buying near the point of need to support local markets and shorten lead times, increasingly override pure price comparison. Bidders should expect their production capacity, traceability and recall procedures to be audited, not merely declared.
This section describes how this category is bought generally, across the public buyers that publish it. The figures elsewhere on this page are measured for this market alone.
Who buys food aid and nutrition in Ireland?
GlobalGov holds 94 food aid and nutrition records from 59 distinct buying organisations in Ireland. The most frequent publishers are Irish Prison Service (7 records); The Office of Government Procurement (6 records); daa plc (5 records); An Garda Síochána_1192 (3 records); Health Service Executive (3 records); Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board (3 records). Between them the 6 largest account for 29% of everything published, so buying here is spread across many separate authorities.
| Buying organisation | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Irish Prison Service | 7 | 7.4% |
| The Office of Government Procurement | 6 | 6.4% |
| daa plc | 5 | 5.3% |
| An Garda Síochána_1192 | 3 | 3.2% |
| Health Service Executive | 3 | 3.2% |
| Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board | 3 | 3.2% |
What are food aid and nutrition contracts worth in Ireland?
83 of the 94 records publish a contract value. The median is $1.6M and the largest single published value is $260.6M. By size, 5 under $100k, 30 between $100k and $1M, 22 between $1M and $10M, 26 above $10M. The remaining 11 publish no value at all, so every figure here describes the priced subset only, and values are as stated by the buyer rather than as finally awarded.
| Contract size | Records | Share of priced |
|---|---|---|
| under $100k | 5 | 6.0% |
| between $100k and $1M | 30 | 36% |
| between $1M and $10M | 22 | 27% |
| above $10M | 26 | 31% |
How long do bidders get to respond to food aid and nutrition tenders in Ireland?
Across the 33 Ireland food aid and nutrition notices that publish both a publication date and a closing date, the median response window is 34 days. A quarter of them allowed 31 days or fewer and a quarter stayed open for more than 37. Short turnarounds are the exception rather than the rule here: only 1 (3.0%) closed within a fortnight of being published.
How often are food aid and nutrition tenders published in Ireland?
Ireland published 14 notices in this category in the last twelve months. Volume is steady against the 15 published in the twelve months before that. Over the last three years there were 42, spread across 49 separate months of activity since 13 February 2020. May is historically the busiest month. No new notice has been published in this category since 26 May 2026, 128 days ago, so treat the figures above as a record of the market rather than as this week's pipeline.
How does Ireland compare with other food aid and nutrition markets?
Among the 39 countries where GlobalGov holds a comparable food aid and nutrition market, Ireland ranks 33rd by number of records. The largest is France (4,020 records against 94 here). Within Ireland itself, food aid and nutrition is the 43rd largest of the 63 procurement categories tracked here.
Where do the Ireland food aid and nutrition records on this page come from?
These 94 records are collected from 1 official source: TED (94). GlobalGov is an independent aggregator and is not affiliated with any of them; each record links back to the notice on its issuing portal. The set is rebuilt nightly, and the counts on this page were taken on 2026-10-01.
Most recent Food Aid and Nutrition tenders in Ireland
None of these are open for bids now — they are the most recent records GlobalGov holds for this market, kept here so the shape of a typical food aid and nutrition notice in Ireland is visible. Set an alert to be told when the next one opens.
Ireland – Event services – Provision of services for a community-led design and delivery of a multi-day EU funded food heritage festival under the SLOWTOUR project delivered by Limerick City and County Council (LCCC)
Establishment of a Panel of Individual External Experts to Provide Expertise in Agriculture, Food and Sustainability Systems
Other procurement categories in Ireland
Building ConstructionManagement ConsultingSoftware DevelopmentRoad & InfrastructureArchitecture and EngineeringTraining & EducationCivil ConstructionMaintenance & RepairConsultingTransportationHospital ConstructionLegal ServicesVehicles and FleetResearch & DevelopmentTraining and Capacity BuildingVehicle MaintenanceMedical EquipmentFinancial ServicesIT ConsultingHealthcare ServicesEnergyWaste ManagementLaboratory EquipmentCatering ServicesCommunications PrIct EquipmentOffice FurnitureEnvironmental ServicesTelecommunicationsSurvey & MappingFinancial AdvisoryStaffing AugmentationBuilding MaterialsRoads and Highways InfrastructureIt Support & MaintenancePrinting PublishingSecurity ServicesScientific ResearchGround TransportWarehousingAgricultural EquipmentSchools and UniversitiesFreight and LogisticsRenovation RehabilitationSite PreparationEvent ManagementUniforms ClothingCybersecurityPharmaceuticalsAudit and AccountingMail CourierResearch and StudiesFuel SupplyCommunity DevelopmentFacilities and CleaningDatabase ManagementWeapons SystemsCloud ServicesAdult LiteracyOil Gas UpstreamMilitary LogisticsHelpdesk Support
Food Aid and Nutrition procurement in other markets
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