January 25, 2008

 

IPE and IFE : The AGM of the global poultry market

 

An eFeedLink exclusive

 

 

The vast size and scale of the combined International Poultry Expo (IPE) and International Feed Expo (IFE) makes the fair's atmosphere a barometer of the overall livestock market.

 

In that sense, the tone of this year's IPE and IFE was one of innovation and internationalisation. Though the issue of safe food exports is less than a year old, the feed and poultry sector outdid themselves by offering a plethora of solutions at this year's exhibition.

 

''For the past few years, the major issues have been feed supply, food safety, both at the feed level, during poultry's maturing and during processing.  This year's IPE and IFE reflects that. I see a lot of companies offering natural alternatives to antibiotics and ways of adapting non-traditional feeds,'' said Evan J. Stachowicz, an equipment review specialist with the USDA.

 

On the feed side, suppliers of alternative feed were adapting grains such as DDGS. Answering the dilemma of DDGS's proven but highly variable nutritional characteristics, Jonathan Bates, president of DDGS Feeds Inc. states that his firm, ''customises DDGS to a client's specifications by purchasing and shipping DDGS that matches specific nutritional requests.'' Another company in the same line noted that American corn, partly due to better growing techniques and the country's drier climate, showed less mycotoxin contamination, thereby making it an ideal export to Asia, where the more humid climate leads to higher mycotoxin levels.

 

We could also see the market responding to the reality that traditional feeds are now in chronically short supply. A large number of firms offered enzyme combinations that make it possible for poultry and other livestock to consume non-traditional feeds such as rice bran, cassava and others. In the same vein, a very large number of firms were promoting natural alternatives to AGPs. Sensing that the EU's banning of antibiotics in feed is start of a global trend, companies from India to America offered alternatives consisting of herbs, acidifiers, key enzymes or a combination of these substances.

 

Further up the chain, companies like Danisco did not merely market enzymes but an entire, highly quantitative approach that maximized feed conversion - techniques that relied on statistics and IT as much as they did on innovative chemistry. Milan Hruby, PhD, Danisco's technical services manager, made an eye-opening presentation on how adjustments to poultry feed enzymes could fine-tune a multitude of characteristics ranging from bird size specifications to the intended maturation cycle length.

 

In the meat processing wing of the show, companies such as Iceland's Marel Food Systems made a fusion of safety and productivity their selling point. Adapting technology first used in the spotless assembly lines of Japanese carmakers, Marel's robots exhaled loudly as they cut an unending line of chicken pieces with beyond-human speed and precision. By removing the human element from the cutting process, hygiene standards become less challenging. Hence, this new generation of American and European poultry processing technology ideally is ideally suited for export to China, Vietnam or other jurisdictions with safety and hygiene issues.

 

In his 20-minute speech, US Commerce Department Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez worked to get the feed and poultry sector's support for free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, all of which are facing approval votes in Congress.  Nevertheless, he wisely noted that, ''While most of you are still found in the domestic market, poultry and eggs are becoming increasingly export oriented.'' Gutierrez stated that from 2002 to 2006, America's poultry exports increased by 40 percent and that in large overseas markets such as South Korea and Russia, ''the US is their number one source of poultry.''

 

If anything, the pace of export growth is accelerating. He elaborated that, ''Egg exports alone were up by 12 percent in 2007 over 2006 and we expect them to increase by another 13 percent in 2008.'' Should the free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea be approved, their tarrifs on American poultry will fall to zero from today's 20 to 209 percent (depending on country).

 

This growing internationalization of the feed and poultry trades was also evident in the exhibition's changing demographics. American companies were trying to export solutions for everything from slaughterhouse safety to antibiotic overuse to Asia. Asian buyers were looking for egg suppliers and food hygiene technologies that could be used to power their exports.

 

Most of all, Spanish was spoken everywhere and on the literature of numerous companies. Some were homegrown Latin American companies eager to export poultry and eggs everywhere from America to China. Others were American companies. Gabriel Piedrahita, project engineer with Illinois-based Cold Equipment Corp explained that, ''Hispanics, who started in dirty slaughterhouse jobs are increasingly starting up poultry processing firms and running the show in this industry. They have industry knowledge, language and cultural skills to export the food and equipment to Latin America, Spain, Brazil and many other places.''

 

From this, we can see that a one-time American fair has become a meeting place for the global poultry and feed markets. After 60 years, IPE and IFE are not large American fairs but the annual general meeting of a global market. While American companies continue to dominate both this fair and its industries, even they increasingly look and speak like the overseas buyers of their feed, eggs and poultry.