FIAAP/VICTAM/GRAPAS International 2015: The General Verdict- A Great Show

Global industry executives from the animal feed, flour & rice milling, grain processing and biomass pelleting industries descended on Cologne in Germany last week. These senior executives had come to visit the 2015 edition of the renowned FIAAP/VICTAM/GRAPAS International exhibition and conferences. Thousands of visitors came through the doors of the KoelnMesse exhibition centre, set in the heart of the beautiful and historic city of Cologne. They had come from as far away as Australia and every continent was represented. There were even official parties from Japan, PRC, Thailand, Turkey and Russia.

The exhibitors, of which there were 276, were busy with serious trade enquiries and discussions, many lasting a long time. There was much to see for the trade professionals and also a wide range of new products that were launched at the show.

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 organised by trade magazine Milling and Grain had joint winners: Alapala, Turkey and Buhler AG, Switzerland.
The Aquafeed Innovation Award organised by Aquafeed.com was won by Tovalia Intelscan, France.
The FIAAP Animal Nutrition Award organised by trade magazine AllAboutFeed was won by Adifo, Belgium.

During the three days of the show, 9 – 11 June, there were the following conferences: 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 50^th Anniversary with a celebration dinner and an evening of magical entertainment for 500 guests at the elegant Flora and botanical gardens in Cologne.

During this dinner the President of the Victam Foundation, Mr. Andre Oosterveld thanked the guests for their continued support of the exhibitions and especially praised the exhibitors for their professional and innovative stands, as well as, the enormous and varied amount of products on display.

Earlier in the day a press conference had been held at which Henk van de Bunt, the General Manager of Victam International BV spoke.

He 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 early summer of 2017. There will also be an additional area where companies will be able to have table-top exhibits.

Mr Van de Bunt also announced that FIAAP, VICTAM & GRAPAS Asia 2016 will take place from 29 – 31 March 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand. It will once again be held in the superb facilities of the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC). Over half of the available exhibition space for the show is already reserved.

Victam will also celebrate its 25^th 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, petfood ingredients and production and flour and rice milling & grain processing.

There will be the 2nd meeting of the ASEAN Feed Associations as well as the 2^nd edition of the ASEAN FEED & RICE SYMPOSIUM. These will bring together members of the milling associations from throughout Asia with acknowledged industry experts.

Mr. Van de Bunt went on to say that 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.

Mr. Van de Bunt then announced that he will retire as from the 1st July 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 so as to be introduced to the industry.