Global industry executives from the animal feed, flour and rice milling, grain processing and biomass pelleting industries recently descended on Cologne, Germany, for the FIAAP/VICTAM/GRAPAS International exhibition and conferences.
Thousands of visitors from every continent, and 276 exhibitors attended.
At the end of the first show day, the winners of the three different innovation awards were announced. They are as follows:
- The GRAPAS Awards organized by trade magazine Milling and Grain had joint winners: Alapala, Turkey and Buhler AG, Switzerland.
- The Aquafeed Innovation Award organized by Aquafeed.com was won by Tovalia Intelscan, France.
- The FIAAP Animal Nutrition Award organized by trade magazine AllAboutFeed was won by Adifo, Belgium.
The following conferences were held during the show: the FIAAP Conference, Aquafeed Horizons, AEBIOM Pellet Workshop, Petfood Forum Europe 2015, GMP+International Feed Safety Assurance certificate, the IFF Feed Conference and the Global Milling Conference with GRAPAS International 2015.
For the first time ever, FEFAC (the European Feed Manufacturers Federation) held its Annual General Meeting during the event and their members joined the exhibition as well.
Additionally, Victam arranged for free tours to the Vitelia feed mill and the newly opened Feed Design Lab in the Netherlands. These proved very popular with the visitors.
Victam celebrated its 50th anniversary with a celebration dinner and entertainment for 500 guests at the Flora and botanical gardens in Cologne.
Henk van de Bunt, the general manager of Victam International BV, announced that Victam, in conjunction with some of their conference organizers, will shortly be launching a new venture. They will organize a series of industry conferences at a venue near Cologne in summer 2017. There will also be an additional area where companies will be able to have tabletop exhibits.
Van de Bunt also announced that FIAAP, VICTAM & GRAPAS Asia 2016 will take place March 29-31, 2016, in Bangkok, Thailand. It will once again be held at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC). More than half of the available exhibition space for the show is already reserved.
Victam will also celebrate its 25th year since it first organized a show in South East Asia.
The exhibitions and conferences will cover animal feed ingredients and additives, aqua feed ingredients and production, biomass pelleting technology, pet food ingredients and production and flour and rice milling and grain processing.
There will be the 2nd meeting of the ASEAN Feed Associations as well as the 2nd edition of the ASEAN Feed & Rice Symposium. These will bring together members of the milling associations from throughout Asia with acknowledged industry experts.
Van de Bunt also said there will be some changes within the Victam organization. New members will be appointed to the Board from within the feed, flour and grain industries. This will bring new ideas and experience to its Board.
Van de Bunt also announced that he will retire as from the Board July 1, 2016. He will, however, still be the general manager for the next event in Bangkok. It is the intention of the Board to appoint a new general manager to succeed him and that hopefully either he or she will be in Bangkok for the next show and will be introduced to the industry.
