Milling and Grain Magazine had the pleasure of attending Eurotier this year, which took place in Hannover, Germany, from November 15 – 18.
A wide selection of industry professionals attended from a variety of countries across the globe. Over 1800 exhibitors came together to showcase from 57 countries, with approximately 106,000 visitors from 141 countries. The event featured over 400 trade events and conferences to attend, providing an exciting and busy atmosphere.
Eurotier is the world’s leading trade fair for professional animal farming and livestock management. Due to the ongoing pandemic, there has been a longer than usual four-year gap since the last event, making this year’s Eurotier all the more highly anticipated. Walking through the packed busy halls you could sense the excitement and enthusiasm among companies, exhibitors and professionals who have finally been able to come together from across the globe.
Members of the industry had fully packed schedules, from morning to evening there were exhibits, talks, seminars, conferences, and socials.
The overall theme of Eurotier 2022 was focused on ‘transforming animal farming’, emerging trends, future developments, and innovations in the sector. Attendees got to explore are the exciting innovations presented, Innovations in the emerging insect farming industry, AI, Smart Farming, and agritech.
Other topics frequently mentioned in the seminars and conferences include zeitgeists, from sustainability, climate change, energy, new solutions, and the environment, to animal welfare, and conflict affecting animal production.
The event held many well-attended conferences, seminars, and round tables throughout all four days. Speaking at an opening press conference on the eve of the opening day, Dr Lothar Hövelmann, Eurotier Chief Executive says the global agricultural industry faces “a barrage of multinational crises.”
He expressed the view that events such as Eurotier were essential now that the pandemic is receding, saying there is no substitute for directdialogue and meeting face-to-face. Dr Hövelmann’s ‘barrage of crises,’ includes international trade challenges, feed price increases, the outcome of the pandemic and the interruption to supply chains all directly impacting global livestock production. But he remained positive that energy prices for example and animal feed prices will return to more normal levels in the medium term.
In summary, Dr Hövelmann says the key points arising from the survey show that: dairy farmers want to adopt more digital solutions; pig farmers are more focused on equipment, welfare and hygiene and the poultry industry is currently looking to build and adopt more renewable energy sources. Hamlet Protein hosted the Feed your Brain Seminar, giving ‘An inside view of gut health to improve sustainability in monogastric animal production’, which was presented by Elizabeth Santin (Co-Founder of ISI Institute Brasil).
She talked about sustainable development goals in the industry, looking at the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), and its significance in evaluating the whole supply chain. The seminar went on to expand on the importance of livestock gut health in relation to animal welfare, food safety, workers welfare, and creating positive economic effects.
Included in these conferences were several conferences and round tables tackling the recent issues faced by Ukraine and its affects/future outlooks on agriculture and animal farming, first of which was the ‘International Conference Ukraine’ aimed at discussing the ‘struggle for existence of Ukrainian livestock farming’.
The Ukraine conference started with opening addresses from René Döbelt, Ophelia Nick, and Tara Vysotskyi, who joined through Zoom, live from Ukraine. There were key presentations from Olena Dadus and Joseph Efken, and a panel discussion kicked off with the above mentioned plus Julia Kostynska, Erik Guttulsröd, Maksym Gopka, Andrey Dykun, and Victor Sheremeta. The main discussion was surrounding sustainable reconstruction of agriculture, creating value added whilst maintaining food security among Ukrainians.
Ophelia Nick spoke on the topic of reconstructing agriculture in a sustainable way, mentioning the recent challenges Ukrainian livestock farmers have faced in needing revenue to sustain farms whilst there are blockades targeting seaports. She further pointed out the reality of reconstruction is only possible with international support.
Taras Vysotskyi called live from Ukraine, to thank those who have supported and states he hopes that given the recent shortages, animal husbandry will be increased in the future, and emphasises the importance of creating jobs and value added, applauding the courage his current colleagues have shown.
After the opening addresses were key presentations, one of which was by Olena Dadus. She believes there is a potential for reconstruction once seaports are unblocked. The sustainable increase in livestock farming needs to meet the requirements of the Ukrainian people, she adds, which involves maintaining acceptable food prices, food security, business developments and creating value added. Factors affecting livestock such as daylight, water, supervision, and seasonal changes also need to be considered, and going forward more equipment and technical support is needed.
The panel discussion concludes with Olena Dadus affirming there are projects and loans planned, to help the current situation. ‘This war gives Ukraine the possibility to show the world that Ukraine exists, that they love freedom, and can live and struggle for the right to live in their own country’ she states, summarising that going forward, they must create the conditions that make it possible to develop agriculture.
Such a large international crowd invited many networking opportunities for those who attended, each hall displaying a variety of insights into animal production, including equipment, animal feed, veterinary and health products, new and innovative designs, and pioneering techniques. Each hall showed a variety of sectors from the aquaculture lounge, which was a popular feature in Hall 21, Insect feed and farming, Feed for Future, and exhibits specialising in dairy, cattle, sheep, goat, horse, pig and poultry, feed and animal health, products, and energy decentral. The exhibition made sure to cover all aspects of the livestock industry, from transport, technology, animal housing, environment, and milking tech, to processing and equipment.
The event provided the chance to see all these new developments in the sector and was a great success.
