FIAAP, VICTAM & GRAPAS ASIA 2014. The Success Continues

This was the second time that FIAAP, VICTAM & GRAPAS Asia had been held in BITEC, in Bangkok and as usual quality was the word being used to describe the shows and conferences. The visitors described the exhibits as high quality. The exhibitors said the same for the visitors and the conference delegates also confirmed the quality of the papers presented at the numerous conferences.

There were in all 219 exhibitors, as against 166 in 2012, and they came from 29 different countries, the net exhibition floor area was almost 16% larger than the 2012 edition.The show space/area was fully booked, and there were even companies on the list waiting for a possibility to exhibit.

Over the three days of the exhibition there were *6134 visitors to the shows; 28% were from outside Thailand, a slight decrease on the 6198 visitors which attended the 2012 event. This is not surprising as there was civil unrest in Thailand and especially Bangkok, although this unrest was in small areas which were well away from BITEC, the hotels and the business areas. The demonstrations had received negative news coverage all over the world and especially in Asia. Both Indonesia and India held general elections during the event, and we understood that potential visitors decided not to fly owing to the unfortunate disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines plane. All of these had an adverse affect on the number of visitors to the event and especially foreigners and if none of these had happened then the number of visitors to the shows and conferences would have certainly be higher.

*The visitor figures have been independently audited by an UFI approved auditor that was appointed by TCEB (Thai Convention & Exhibition Bureau).

Almost 30% of the visitors to the exhibitions were of director level. Many had travelled from all over South & South East Asia. In fact there were visitors from 63 countries. The survey also indicated that almost 92% of the visitors intend to visit the shows again in 2016.

The majority of the visitors, as you would expect, came from the animal feed, aquafeed and dry petfood production sectors. However there was a marked increase in the number of visitors from rice and flour millers, grain processors, noodle, breakfast cereal and snack producers, this was also reflected in the exhibition profile.

 Some visitor quotes:

“I have no specific comments to make, just wanted to inform you that our group visiting from Bhutan were totally impressed by the high standard exhibition and seminars. The products were very relevant in our context and we hope to bring some in our country too. Thank you for the great time you offered to us. We really appreciate it. Many thanks to the organisers and all those who were involved in the exhibition. It was really successful”.

“Was a very good Exhibition”!

“I would like to see more effort to promote the biomass technology sector, which is a stated aim of the Thai government, but doesn't seem to have much traction”.

“Event was excellent”.

“Victam was very profitable for me. I made good contacts within the fair too. With flour & feed mills and other sectors we supply equipment. I am planning to participate at the fair with a booth in 2016. But in case changing the country, I will need to see the market again before deciding about a booth”.

“Keep up the good work”!

“Very well organised event”.  

Many new products were on show as the exhibitions provided the perfect platform to launch new products and services to the market. Some of these were awarded the highly coveted “Innovations Awards”. The winners were as follows:

The Aquafeed Innovation Award was won by Norvidan for their NODS - Norvidan On-line Density System.

FUMzyme, a purified enzyme from Biomin to detoxify mycotoxins in animals has won the FIAAP Animal Nutrition Award. The runner up was Kemin with its multi-enzyme product.

4B Braime Elevator Components won the GRAPAS Award with their Hazardmon product. Recommended were Morillon for their Super SHG Hydrascrew and Buhler for their Combistoner.

The event was supported by a series of technical conferences: 

These conferences were organized by independent specialist organizations, except for the ASEAN Symposium. We understand that they were organized well and that the delegates were pleased with the venue, the conference programmes and content. There was also an increase in the number of delegates that attended the conferences despite the late cancellation of the biomass conference.

Victam organised the first ever ASEAN Feed & Rice Symposium and this was held during the event. A full auditorium of industry VIPs listened attentively to the keynote speeches which were delivered by senior executives from the Asian Development Bank, the ASEAN Economic Community and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. (Transcripts of these speeches can be found on our website)

These included issues such as the impact of the ASEAN free trade zone on the feed and rice industries and critical feed safety, security and sustainability issues facing the region in 2015 and beyond. 

Another first for this event was the inaugurating session of the ASEAN Feed Summit, again organised by Victam and hosted by the Thai Feed Mill Association. Held in closed session and chaired by Mr.Pornsil Patchrintanakul, President of the Thai Feed Mill Association, and moderated by Ms. Alexandra de Athayde, IFIF Executive Director, brought together senior feed regulators and industry representatives from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. 

During the discussion a number of issues were identified for further potential co-operation, including capacity development for feed safety, efforts towards regulatory harmonisation, as well as the need to work with all stakeholders on agri-food chain on common challenges.

Mr. Mario Sergio Cutait, IFIF (International Feed Industry Federation) Chairman, welcomed “the opportunity to join this important Summit and to work towards closer collaboration in Asia.” 

The Summit concluded in the formation of a Federation of ASEAN Feed Associations and the Chairman, Mr.Pornsil Patchrintanakul, was elected unanimously. 

The next FIAAP, VICTAM & GRAPAS event in Asia will be in Spring 2016, however an even larger event organised by Victam will take place in Cologne, Germany in 2015. This is FIAAP, VICTAM & GRAPAS INTERNATIONAL 2015 and it will be held at the KoelnMesse from 9 – 11 June 2015.