April 3, 2013

 

 

The globally cattle, meat, poultry meat and egg industry contributed to the success of the recently concluded VIV Asia 2013, not only marked by encouraging exhibitor and visitor numbers, but by actual materialised deals.

 

"The combination of western businesses and the enthusiasm and levels of interest shown by the emerging Asian economies resulted in a sensational atmosphere where plenty of deals were concluded," says Ruwan Berculo project manager of VIV.

 

W.R.B. Souther, senior vice president for Asia of Aviagen, says: "We see VIV Asia as an ideal occasion to strengthen our relationships, but for us it is the only trade show that actually generates business. This is the place where contracts are signed."

 

During VIV Asia, Meyn Food Processing Technologies concluded a major contract with Big Bird Group from Pakistan to provide state-of-the-art systems and equipment for a complete processing plant. Robbert Birkhoff, sales director of Meyn says, "With innovations on display and a huge number of visitors to our stand, we can confirm that our participation at VIV Asia was an outstanding success! We are proud of the contract with Big Bird Group to construct the largest automated poultry plant in Pakistan."

 

Henry Arts, Marketing Director of Pas Reform Hatchery Technologies also noted some significant success stories, including entering an agreement with Amrit Group from India. "Visitors from all over Asia have been extremely positive and enthusiastic about the innovations that we brought to Bangkok this year. With such positive feedback and confirmation of new contracts, this year's show has been a great success, both in terms of new contacts and in delivering genuine opportunities for further business development," says Arts.

 

The 770 exhibitors at VIV Asia were not only visited by key managers representing the strongly growing animal protein industry in South East Asia, but also by large Russian investors. In addition, there were many visitors from India, Pakistan and the Middle East.

 

In addition to the trade show, the parallel programs - with 30 seminars and conferences - were also a success. According to Berculo, the Animal Health Summit, the Partner Country Programs for Indonesia and the Philippines, and the new Dairy Production Conference were particular triumphs.

 

In Berculo's view the level of the seminars and conferences also reflects the great value of helping the industry to develop well in the emerging countries. He says, "Animal health and food safety are already very important issues in those countries. Retail chains there with a serious approach impose the same food safety standards as European and American supermarket chains."

 

This opinion is shared by Mr Carel Neervoort, Area Manager for HatchTech in Asia. "There is a strong focus on producing healthy and safe products. Our products are designed and developed for the production of strong and healthy chicks. At VIV Asia, HatchTech demonstrated the HatchBrood system. HatchBrood balances and controls all crucial environmental variables during the brooding period, ensuring that all chicks maintain a uniform and optimum body temperature. VIV Asia visitors indicated their interest in being able to reduce medicine usage in their poultry operations by producing stronger flocks, resulting in a healthier product at the consumer's table," says Neervoort.

 

In general terms the exhibitors were exceedingly pleased. The number of visitors totalled at 33,229 from 118 countries, which exceeds the expected figure of 27,000. Visitors rated the exhibition with a score of 8.3, while exhibitors rated VIV Asia 2013 as 8.1.

 

David Hazenbroek, president of Foodmate, a cut-up and deboning equipment company affirms his commitment to participate in the next edition. He says, "VIV Asia is an important gateway to Asia's emerging markets. The introduction of OPTI LTD brought many interesting new contacts. At the next edition we want to expand our presentation area so we can display more solutions. Our new focus lies on South-Korea and Japan."

 

Despite these positive results, Ruwan Berculo still has some aspirations: "The event has a very strong profile in the poultry husbandry chain. That's excellent, as there is a huge demand for it. But we want to really promote the pork chain too. Our Aquatic Asia exhibition, held concurrently with VIV, has not yet produced the results we intended or expected either. The range offered at Aquatic Asia 2013 was limited, while VIV Asia had around 250 suppliers of products for the aquaculture sector. Visitors to Aquatic Asia, 695 in total, still attach great value to a dedicated event for their sector. The conference programs about fish farming and aquaculture were very well-attended. This aspect forms a firm foundation for future developments. The same applies to Dairy. Events that start modestly with a small conference could have the potential to grow into a strong pillar of the VIV-concept. In short, the lines have already been set out for the 2015-edition".