December 21, 2007

 

More exhibitors at Victam and FIAPP 2008

 

press release

 

 

The bi-annual feed industry joint exhibition Victam Asia 2008 and Feed Ingredients and Additives Asia Pacific (FIAPP) 2008, slated March 5-7 at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok, Thailand, will be 30 percent bigger than the 2006 event.

 

Mr. Henk van de Bunt, general manager of organizer Victam International, told a Bangkok press conference Wednesday that the 2008 event will have more exhibitors and guests, reflecting the poultry industry's recovery and feed industry expansions in Asia, especially in China, Thailand and Vietnam.

 

Visitors from 51 countries are expected to come to the event, where most of the 120 exhibitors "will be displaying new equipment, processes, formulation technology and ingredients that have not been seen before in Southeast Asia," he said.

 

Calling it Asia-Pacific's largest integrated animal feed event, Mr. van de Bunt said the exhibition provides a rare chance for visitors, largely from South Asia and Southeast Asia, to see "under one roof leading companies that supply specialist processing equipment and ingredients used in the production of animal feeds, dry petfood and aquafeed."

 

The joint trade show will be accompanied by conferences with experts from the government and other sectors of the industry as resource speakers. The Thai Feed Mill Association will have its Thai feed conference during the event where people from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Livestock will present technical papers on crucial subjects affecting the local feed industry.

 

Victam Asia was last held in March 2006, also in Bangkok. More than 4,000 people visited the exhibition.

 

Next year's Victam Asia, Mr. van de Bunt said, would be additionally interesting as it coincides with FIAAP 2008, the feed ingredients and additives trade show specifically organized for animal nutritionists, feed formulators and veterinarians.

 

The Victam side of the exhibition, according to him, will feature machineries and technologies involving feed production, aquafeed, petfood, raw materials processing, storage and handling, biomass, and dust explosion prevention.

 

The feed ingredients and additives part of the trade event, on the other hand, will bring together companies supplying and distributing specialist ingredients and additives.  Its conferences will be attended by nutritionists, feed formulators, veterinarians and senior industry executives from feed compounders, integrators, cooperatives, large farms and hatcheries, among other people in the industry.

 

At the press conference, the agricultural counselor at The Netherlands embassy in Bangkok, Mr Rubert Konijn, said the forthcoming event was crucial in the light of current realities.

 

"The growth of population, the growth in demand for animal protein and growth in demand for feed is larger in Asia than in any other part of the world," he said. At the heart of it, he added, is the feed sector which is being torn by "competing claims between crops for energy and crops for food."

 

The obvious solution, he pointed out, "is to invest in better machines, better ingredients and more modern equipment" to maximize feed efficiency.

 

Local fishery and livestock experts gave an overview of Thailand's food and feed industries during the press conference, which was also attended by representatives from several exhibitors.