Feature Story
Feed event moves
beyond the farm gate
Petfood Forum Europe and Aquafeed get new emphasis at
Victam International, while manufacture of livestock feed
continues to serve as foundation of show
In addition to its established role as the
exhibition for the world’s animal feed
industries, the next Victam, to be held
8th-10th May 2007, will reach out to petfood
and aquafeed segments
Fish and pets lead the parade of notable
changes scheduled for this year’s Victam
International show in the Netherlands.
Throughout its long history, the event has
maintained a firm focus on the manufacture
of feed for farm animals. Now in 2007 its
profile has been broadened to include the
fast-expanding aquafeeds market and also
This year’s Victam International show will again
take place in the Dutch city of Utrecht between
8th-10th May 2007.
the big business that is petfoods.
The clearest indication of these changes
can be found by looking at the line-up of
conferences that will take place alongside
the trade fair on the showground of the
Dutch city of Utrecht between 8th-10th May
2007. There on the list is Aquafeed Horizons,
organised by Aquafeed.com with the support of the Norwegian Institute of Fisheries
and Aquaculture Research. Listed, too, is
Petfood Forum Europe, marking the first
time that the banner conference of WATT’s
Petfood Industry magazine and information
service moves from being a separate function to becoming a feature of the Victam
programme.
Details of Petfood Forum Europe are given
in the accompanying panel. This conference
is to be held on Tuesday 8th May 2007 at the
same site as the trade show. It will highlight
the major contribution from Europe in the
global growth of petfood sales, as well as the
emergence of new product opportunities for
manufacturers in the light of the purchasing
power of consumers and the strong tendency for human food trends to drive owners’
choices in feeding their dogs and cats.
Furthermore, the Victam agenda includes
a seminar on Biomass Pelleting, as the return
of a previous collaboration with European
biomass association AEBIOM that accompanied the show in 2004. Dutch-based
nutrition group Provimi will be staging its
own symposium on ingredients. One more
subject has been added recently. The latest
announcement about the conference programme has revealed that there will be an
ATEX symposium organised by engineering
consultancy Tebodin CCE.
This raises echoes of the Victam of three
years ago. In 2004, Feed International
reported that the exhibition had coincided with the
arrival of worker safety rules in the European
Union (EU), including regulations on preventing dust explosions. As from July 2003, all
new or amended European storage installations needed to comply with standards called
ATEX (from the French-language atmosphere
explosible) relating to the design of equipment against explosion or fire. Accordingly
signs saying ‘ATEX approved’ were evident
on numerous show exhibits. This year’s
symposium on the subject aims to offer a
practical illustration of how to implement the
guideline of the EU directive. It reflects the
application of the safety regulations to feed
mills in Europe as well as to grain processing
plants and flour mills.
Event: Victam 2007
Dates: 8th – 10th May 2007
Location: Jaarbeurs exhibitions
complex, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Home base in Holland
Victam 2004 was hailed by its organisers
as a resounding success when it received
over 20,000 visitors during three days. The
15th edition had some 200 exhibitors, with the
majority focused on supplying feed-related
equipment, ingredients and services across
Europe and around the world. As this year,
