“Preferrably Kerrigold"

Two words that helped make this Irish export the second best selling butter in America

The original idea was to publish this column on the eve of the latest deadline (July 9) set by the Trump Administration for deciding how much foreign firms will pay in tariffs to sell their products in America.

That deadline was just pushed back to August 1. Oh, the uncertainty! Imagine what it’s like for Ireland’s most successful food exporter and it first Billion Euro brand ever wondering when the tariff wheel will stop spinning and how much more it will cost to do business with Kerrygold-loving consumers in America.

7 July 2025. The butter section at Fred Meyers on Barbur Blvd. in Portland OR

Will higher tariffs take their toll?

Talk of tariffs makes some people’s eyes glaze over. “Wake me up when they decide to raise prices,” goes the all-too-common reaction to the mood swings in the Oval Office that seem to drive the discussion. So to help make sense of it all, here’s a brief primer on one branded product - Kerrygold butter - from one country - Ireland. (I’ll check back in a few months to see how those prices above have risen once higher tariffs kick in.)

Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter from Grass Fed Cows is the second best-selling butter in America. Which is kind of remarkable because two sticks of Kerrygold can cost twice as much as two sticks of the best-selling butter in this country: Land O‘Lakes.

Kerrygold butter’s parent company is Ornua (Irish for new gold and pronounced just the way it looks), a cooperative which markets and sells Irish dairy products on behalf of 14,000 Irish dairy farmers. Ornua paid out 73 million Euros ($85.7m) in bonuses to members of the cooperative last year. (The total number of dairy farmers in Ireland is estimated to be 17,000.)

Higher tariffs on exports of Kerrygold butter to America - be they 10% or 20% or whatever - will make it even more pricey compared to domestic butter. How much more Kerrygold butter will cost and whether Kerrygold holds on to second place when the tariff dust settles remains to be seen. “Following a complex year, we are now entering a period of much uncertainty driven by ongoing global trade tension,” was the way these days of indecision were described by Ornua in April.

Ornua, known as the Irish Dairy Board until 2015, was founded in 1961 by the Government of Ireland. In many ways its growth helped pave the way for the economic “modernity” that made Ireland the international economic player that it is today. (Joining the European Common Market was THE factor.) A key player in the success was a man named Tony O’Reilly (Sir Anthony John Francis O’Reilly is his full moniker). He took over as General Manager of the Irish Dairy Board in 1962 when he was 26 and within ten years was selling Kerrygold butter in Europe, making Kerrygold butter the first significant Irish food export ever. (Other than cattle, of course). He eventually left to be, among other things, CEO of HJ Heinz, the food product multi-national conglomerate that began with catsup. (“One of Ireland’s most remarkable figures,” is the way O’Reilly is described. His rise and fall are worth a separate column. Someday.)

Today Oruna exports dairy products to 110 countries and sells over 11 million packets of butter and cheese each week. Sales in the US make up 40% of its worldwide sales. Which is why the Trump tariffs and trade tensions are keeping executives in Dublin awake at night. The company is privately held so financials are mostly confidential, unless there’s good news, which there usually is year to year.

Germany was the first market outside Ireland where Kerrygold butter was sold.

The triumph of marketing better butter

Those are a few of the facts and figures. But what about the subjective assessment every shopper makes when deciding between Kerrygold and let’s say Tillamook butter?

It certainly didn’t hurt the Kerrygold “brand” when Martha Stewart designated it as the go-to butter in her cookbooks. “Kerrygold preferred” are the magic words that kicked a groundbreaking marketing campaign into high gear. That, and the fact that around 2010 American cooks and consumers decided that butter wasn’t such a bad thing after all. (Footnote: According to the American Butter Institute, butter consumption grew 25% between 2002 and 2012, with 2012 marking a 40-year high.)

It’s not just Martha Stewart. Ornua sends marketing teams all over the world from its Dublin headquarters to work with retailers (Trader Joes was one of its first customers) and what are now called influencers.

Martha Stewart, an original “influencer,” recommends Kerrygold butter in her recipes.

“The romance of a place like Ireland also matters — green, rolling hills, beautiful cows, this image that’s pure.” E. Khosrova

Elaine Khosrova actually wrote a book about butter called Butter: A Rich History. Here’s her take on Kerrygold’s success. “It’s remarkable that something kind of exotic took off in this way. But you cannot underestimate the popularity of Irish culture in this country. Of course, if it didn’t taste good it wouldn’t do as well. The more-golden color I think also enhances the flavor [perception] for Americans, to some degree.”

Chalk one up for Brand Ireland.

Protecting homegrown butter from Kerrygold competition

Dairy famers in Wisconsin got their lawmakers to effectively ban Kerrygold butter about ten years ago. They lobbied for regulations that required any butter sold in the state to have a Grade A Milk designation. Sounds reasonable, except that Ireland doesn’t use a grading system like the one Wisconsin required. The pushback to this blatantly protective rule was fierce. Shoppers were going out of state to buy beloved cubes of Kerrygold butter.

Jean smith of Waukesha, WI told a local televison station when Kerrygold butter was taken off the shelves that she makes regular trips to Nebraska to stock up on her preferred brand. “I'm hauling Kerrygold back in my suitcase and my coolers," she told WTMJ.

Which makes some customers in Ireland chuckle. When one magazine published a “Fancy Butter Taste Test” on line the reaction from some was typified by this comment, “Haha — fancy butter!!! Kerrygold isn’t fancy, It’s just butter.”

Full disclosure. I’m a consumer of Kerrygold butter, but not Kerrygold cheeses. When my personal physician, Dr. Feelbetter, suggested I cut back on dairy, I made it clear I would forego most dairy products but NOT Kerrygold butter (or parmesan cheese).

Full disclosure 2. Oruna also produces Kerrygold Irish Cream Liquer. Which I’ve never tasted. Looks like a Bailey’s-type booze. But the OLCC doesn’t seem to carry it at any of its branches.

DISCLAIMER - Though I hold a leadership position with the Portland Hibernian Society, any opinions given at Gallagher’s Irish Celtic Corner are strictly those of the author and no one else.

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