16 December 2022

4 minute read

By: Aviagen

Ross® distributors from across Turkey, the Middle East and Africa travelled to Dubai for the Ross Middle East and Africa Association (RMEAA) meeting from 16-20 November. This was the first face-to-face meeting the team had with distributors since 2019, and so was very important for us in order to enhance our customer connections, and also to bring important updates to them.

Aviagen executives including Jan Henriksen, CEO, Tom Exley, President of TMEA, Michael Garden, Business Manager, MENA and Robert Roszkopf, Business Manager, SSA, joined the group alongside the Ross TMEA team, Aviagen genetics and veterinary experts and specialists.

Key commercial discussions important to the region centered on critical topics to the poultry industry such as food security, security of supply and strengthening local production through investments within the region. Aviagen Veterinary Health Director, Colin Adams, gave a presentation on the Great Britain (GB Enhanced Standard) compartmentalization program as an effective strategy to safeguard poultry trade to the TMEA region, during a notifiable avian disease outbreak in the supplying country.

Bill Levell, owner of WLM Marketing Management and Training, conducted a compartmentalization and regionalization workshop that outlined how to prepare a document with the local Ministry, highlighting the key selling messages, to assist the importing country on how to amend its local import certificate with the appropriate wording. This is to help the local Ministry to work together with DEFRA and the USDA in order to accept Aviagen’s Compartmentalization Scheme to ensure security of supply into the TMEA region.

Our guest speaker, Kate Hartley, co-owner of Polpeo, gave a presentation on crisis management with a correct communication plan, which once again had a key focus on security of supply, especially with regards to an Avian Influenza outbreak.

Compartmentalization and regionalization are key topics for our RMEAA distributors as they play a crucial role in lobbying with their local governments, to accept and implement compartmentalization from an approved compartment in the UK and the USA. This is in order to ensure that national food security is maintained in the distributor’s country of residence in the event of a notifiable disease outbreak in the exporting country.

Rupert Claxton, Senior Strategy Consultant for GIRA, gave the audience an update on the global and regional poultry market trends and what to expect in the future. During this meeting, we also celebrated a key milestone, which was the 65th anniversary of the Ross brand. This was recognized throughout the meeting in our branding, and a video that was created to celebrate the last 65 years, and in particular the Ross brand within the TMEA region.

Moeen Alkhatib, CEO of Pure Breed, commented, “The cooperation and support shown by Aviagen in light of the current global and economic conditions that the world is going through and the poultry sector in particular, is a basic pillar in the stability of the global poultry industry and ensuring food security, which was a key topic highlighted throughout the RMEAA meeting. The Ross 308 is the best breed for our customers within our region, and our customers are achieving exceptional breeder and broiler performance results. The strength of the Ross genetics was one of the factors that mitigated the sharp rise in production costs and a risk handler for the potential shortage due to the widespread spread of HPAI in the European continent. Compartmentalization was another key topic throughout this year’s meeting, and will be the most important tool that all distributors should take into consideration to maintain the supply to the region and stabilize the market. I’d like to express my thanks once again to the Aviagen and Ross team for delivering these important topics and for organizing this event.”

Ray Stanbury, Chief Operating Officer of Ross Poultry Breeders added, “This year’s RMEAA meeting gave us a very informative, global perspective of the industry’s future and the challenges facing the poultry industry moving forwards into the new norm, especially regarding food security, HPAI, and vaccinations. The R&D presentation was of particular interest as the genetic predictions that were highlighted are most definitely starting to take shape in the field with our impressive broiler and breeder results. Thank you to the Aviagen and Ross team for organizing this important meeting and we look forward to the next one.”

“It was great to meet with our distributors face-to-face at the RMEAA meeting after three and a half years. The RMEAA is the most important event with our distributors where we mutually discuss our commercial strategies and future plans. Aviagen and our valuable distributors are fully aware of the responsibility surrounding food security in the TMEA region, and setting up our plans to ensure all our customers are supplied with the highest quality flocks in full and on time. Aviagen, and our distributors are continuously investing in production facilities to ensure the increasing demand for the Ross breed is met appropriately. I would like to thank all of our distributors for their dedication and efforts to make Ross the breed of choice in the TMEA region,” added Bulent Tanyildizi, International Commercial Manager, Ross, MENA.