February 10, 2016

FEFAC, FEFANA to host first joint conference "Innovation in Animal Nutrition"

FEFAC, the European Feed Manufacturers' Federation, and FEFANA, the EU Association of Specialty Feed Ingredients, will hold an invitational joint high-level stakeholder EU Conference on "Innovation in Animal Nutrition", in Brussels on June 9, 2016.

The two European feed industry organisations will present the vision of a modern industry where central roles are played by innovation and public-private partnerships, which are key to shaping a smart, resource-efficient Europe oriented to meet the EU Commission objectives on jobs, growth and investment.

The event aims to illustrate the role of animal nutrition as an integral part of sustainable food consumption. In addition, the event will highlight the role of the feed sector as an important driver for competitiveness of the EU livestock farming sector. Both FEFAC and FEFANA members are convinced that animal nutrition is part of the solution for the EU livestock sector to address societal challenges, such as climate change and antimicrobial resistance, while it must meet consumer demands in terms of food safety and quality.

The programme will feature key speakers from the European Commission, the feed and livestock sectors and the academic world. The discussion of practical examples will deliver a vision on how to boost the placing of innovative feed products on the EU market and overcome key bottlenecks in the current EU feed regulatory system.

FEFANA president Marco Bruni and FEFAC President Ruud Tijssens issued a joint statement: "Together with breeding, animal nutrition has been the engine of continuous improvement within the EU livestock sector for decades. Better animal nutrition not only leads to better animal performance, welfare and health. Indeed, enhanced knowledge about specialty feed ingredients and compound feed and their respective interaction and application in precision feeding and farming offers economic benefits to farmers as well as great potential to mitigate the environmental impacts of livestock production.

The feed sector seeks opportunities to move innovative products and technologies faster to the market. We look forward to a fruitful dialogue with EU decision makers and other important stakeholders during our first joint event."