The 4 day program is an important event for customers to receive an update on plans and progress for Arbor Acres from the CEO and several senior executives plus other customer and guest speakers who delivered key presentations on current topics of interest and direct impact on poultry companies in the region.

The program commenced with the CEO of Aviagen®, Mr. Jan Henriksen delivering a review of the last 12 months and an outlook for the year ahead. A full evaluation of genetic developments and progress for Arbor Acres occupied the early agenda and was followed by an analysis of Arbor Acres regional performance and then a review of how working together using regionalization and compartmentalization may help reduce the impact of avian influenza on future supply of the product to customers. Several customers gave brief insights into their companies and local markets in the Asian region.

Participants were also addressed by Christopher Young from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research outlining their management and implementation of the sustainable development goals agreed by 193 countries. The major thrust is to alleviate hunger and poverty.

A full review of Asian market trends by an external market research company, GIRA was followed by an interesting analysis of how the quick service restaurant companies in the US are responding to 3 major issues - new antibiotic free production of poultry, bird welfare and slower growing broiler demands from consumers - and how these issues could impact on the efficiency of global production.

Finally several customer presentations including a review of Arbor Acres in China and the success story of the Arbor Acres distributor in South Africa all contributed to the completion of the agenda and brought the conference to a close.

“We plan and apply tremendous effort as a regional team to host the Arbor Acres family of customer companies in Asia and they always respond by attending in numbers and sharing in the exchange of their successes and progress at the association meeting, commented Marc Baribault, vice president, Arbor Acres Asia. “This year was no exception and we were pleased with the positive response to the agenda and the meeting.”