The theme of this year's General Assembly was "The EU poultry meat serving consumers' wellbeing". The Italian a.v.e.c. member UNA (Unione Nazionale dell’Avicoltura) hosted in an excellent way the successful 55th General Assembly, from 20 to 23 September 2012 in beautiful Naples.

President, Jan Odink, highlighted in his speech the different dossiers a.v.e.c. is dealing with. He presented the orgnanisation's annual report 2012 that is publicly available by the a.v.e.c. web site. He expressed concerns about the difficulty to get covered from the customers the higher costs due to the dramatical increase of feed costs and the news from Brazil about large support to farmers.

Participants at the a.v.e.c. General assembly in Naples

Speakers with different backgrounds presented their view on future challenges for the agri-food sector and specifically the poultry sector. It is evident that consumers are the driving force of the European poultry producers and satisfying consumers' wellbeing is the ultimate goal of the European poultry industry.

Hon. Paolo De Castro, MEP and chairman of the COMAGRI in European Parliament, shared in his short presentation his view on future CAP work to be conducted in the European Parliament.

Dr Romano Marabelli, Head of veterinary Public Department in the Ministry of Health Italy pictured some of the common matters debated at European level with an emphasis on the implementation of Salmonella criterion for meat and meat products.

Meat inspection, food safety and consumer health but also the new mandate on mechanically separated meat was explained in details by Dr Marta Hugas, head of the BIOHAZ unit in EFSA.

Herbert Aichinger, adviser in DG ENVI, spoke about the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe recently adopted by Commission and the "EU Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Roundtable" initiative. Sustainable Resources Management, sustainable production, consumption, eco-label and food waste have been topics touched in his presentation. He revealed that the Commission is not pursuing the eco-label for food.

From Rabobank, Nan-Dirk Mulder discussed the Outlook for Global and European poultry industry and trade, as forecast by Rabobank for global and EU poultry meat productions and trade. Companies from emerging markets takes lead and "Where's Europe?" were addressed in his presentation.

Francesco Avanzini, Director in CONAD Italy presented as retailer, the CONAD's vision as regards poultry meat trends and demands interesting for farmers and processors. Learning how you are deciding on the meat specifications including origin of the meat in retail chain has been of great interest for a.v.e.c. members.

The General Assembly elected Federico Felix from Spain as new President of a.v.e.c., succeeding Mr Odink. He is president of Propollo, a.v.e.c.'s Spanish member. He will be supportd by four Vice-Presidents: Paul-Heinz Wesjohann (Germany), Bruno Veronesi (Italy), Paul Lopez (France) and Mr Odink (Netherlands).

a.v.e.c. annual report may be accessed on the a.v.e.c. web site [click here].

Further Reading Go to our previous news item on this story by clicking here.