FBA Issue 31: March / April 2010

 

 

Despite the dark economic clouds of recent times, this year's International Poultry Expo (IPE) and International Feed Expo (IFE) maintained their vitality. "What we're excited about is that attendee density on the exhibit floor was significantly higher this year," said 2010 USPOULTRY chairman Steve Willardsen. Willardson added that, "Due to current economic conditions, we were down slightly on the number of exhibitors from last year, so we had fewer exhibitor personnel. But the number of attendees – customers – was up, and the exhibitors seemed well pleased."

 

Based on preliminary figures, attendance at the 2010 International Poultry Expo and International Feed Expo amounted to approximately 19,000, surpassing the 2009 attendance of 17,800.

 

The big exhibit floor was the main attraction, as more than 800 companies from around the world displayed their latest innovations in equipment, supplies, and services used by industry firms in the production and processing of poultry, eggs, and feed products. Many firms took advantage of the annual event to introduce their new products. All phases of the poultry and feed industry were represented, from live production and processing to further processing and packaging.

 

Complementing the exhibits, education sessions kept industry management informed on current issues. Renewed from 2009, the Animal Agriculture Environmental Sustainability Summit examined the challenges and solutions of environmental stewardship. From what speakers said, the need for agribusiness models to incorporate long-term sustainability has become more important than ever.

 

Keynote speaker Larry Pope, CEO of Smithfield Foods, shared his firm's sustainability programme and noted that customers used to discuss price, product quality and delivery schedules. Now, Pope said that before any of these things are discussed, potential customers want to know about all aspects of sustainability.

 

According to Pope, sustainability at Smithfield is not just about pollution abatement programmes. It also includes animal welfare, antibiotic and drug usage policies, product traceability, worker safety, immigration policy, relationships with employee unions, food safety systems and even financial stability of the company.

 

These items have become hot button issues for buyers for both foodservice outlets and grocery chains; they do not want a vendor's public relations problems to taint their brand. "Our customers demand all of these things now because of demands from consumers," Pope said.

 

Pope said that Smithfield needs to go beyond compliance in all areas. "There is no insurance for a product recall or environmental impact," he said. "You need to have 100% compliance 100% of the time."

 

Pope concluded that both processors and farmers need to listen to, engage and answer their critics. He said that it is important to talk with these individuals and groups to demonstrate to them the industry's side of the story. "We need to educate all of the groups that challenge our practices," he said.