CRACKING the Chinese market is a topical subject this week as another trade mission, led by Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney and representatives from 37 Irish food companies, takes part in a four-city blitz of the country.

Few are better acquainted with this formidable task than Michael Connolly, the international business director for his family firm, Connolly’s Red Mills. His ancestor and namesake emigrated to Long Island to work for a French horse trainer during the famine era and upon his return to Ireland, purchased the Goresbridge Mill business in 1908 for his son William.