June 10, 2014
VIV Europe 2014 well-received by visitors and exhibitors
VIV Europe, the world expo for the global animal husbandry and processing industry, received exceptionally high approval ratings from visitors and exhibitors this year.
In show-time surveys conducted among the 20,214 visitors and the 591 exhibiting companies, the event was awarded a record 7.9 average score (on a scale where 10 indicates the highest satisfaction) by visitors, while exhibitors rated it at 8.1. "To have such high ratings is very unusual for large European trade shows," said VIV Europe project manager Ruwan Berculo.
"I want to thank everyone involved in VIV Europe for making it so successful," Berculo said.
Berculo considers the success a joint effort. "In fact, I think its success was founded especially on the confidence that the industry had in creating and investing in a world expo which would bring everyone together at an important time for the future of animal protein supply and demand. Our job as organisers was to make sure everyone was welcomed and given every assistance in their visit."
"For the first time at a VIV exhibition there were opportunities for people to meet informally in smaller groups at networking sessions, dedicated to specific countries and regions in Africa, China and Latin America," added Berculo. This was in line with the organisers'' main objective to create unique and fruitful networking opportunities between buyers and sellers from all around the globe. These sessions were well attended and there was also a positive response to the invitation for visitors to take part in a day of field trips to locations in the Dutch poultry, feed and pig sectors.
Berculo also spoke of the expo''s focus on sustainability in the livestock industry. "The speakers in our conference programme did an excellent job of emphasising both the opportunities and the challenges that lie ahead for animal protein production around the world. Sustainability is essential and we heard a calculation that producing poultry and fish can be as sustainable as the production of a crop such as cashew nuts in terms of use of resources. But the need for efficiency was underlined in the same context, because it seems that the weakest performers in farming account for over half of all carbon dioxide emissions associated with farms."
To recognise the contributions of companies at the forefront of innovation, a total of 38 products were nominated for the four categories of the show''s Innovation Awards. Marel Stork Poultry Processing headed the Processing category and won the overall award with its SmartWeigher line for accurate grading and distribution of broilers at the highest possible processing speeds. Kemin took the prize in the Health and Nutrition category with its Lipid Evaluation Test that provides feed formulators with a nutritional profile of sources of oils and fats for poultry and livestock diets. Hotraco Agri won in the Farming and Housing category with its Fortica touch-screen poultry house computer that gives the user complete control over all housing processes such as climate, feed and water, egg flow and animal weighing. In the fourth category, Hatching and Breeding, the winner was HatchTech with its revolutionary HatchCare system for higher hatchability rates and better chick quality in which a key feature is the early feeding of the newly hatched chicks.
The show additionally recognised four famous names in the global poultry industry, who became the latest recipients of the European Poultry Personality Awards co-sponsored by Positive Action Publications and VIV. Dr. Piet Simons was announced as VIV Poultry Personality 2014; he is a past president of the World''s Poultry Science Association who is now an Ambassador for the Dutch Poultry Centre after a career in poultry research. Otto van Tuijl, technical director of Aviagen EPI, won the VIV Poultry Breeder Personality Award 2014 and Jack Hazenbroek, founder of poultry processing systems company Systemate Holland, was awarded the title VIV Meat Personality 2014. Nigel Horrox, who will be the next president of the World''s Veterinary Poultry Association and is the owner and publisher of Positive Action Publications, received a special Oeuvre Award to recognise his contribution to the international development of the poultry sector.
The three-day event was attended by people from 136 countries, with over half of the visitors from non-European countries.
Planning has started for the next VIV Europe, which will return to Utrecht in the Netherlands in the spring of 2018.