The Netherlands, Country Guest of Honour at National Poultry Congress, Colombia

More than 1.800 attendees could witness the 'Orange Experience', given by the participation of 20 Dutch companies at the congress as well as the presentations of two Dutch academic experts, Mrs. Ferry Leenstra and Mr. Jaap Wagenaar, in the areas of global trends in poultry industry and antimicrobial resistance respectively. LAN Colombia, led by Agricultural Counsellor, Mrs. Patricia de Vries, participated actively at this edition of the National Poultry Congress of FENAVI.

On Tuesday 4th, a Dutch Agribusiness Delegation accompanied by Mr. Juan Francisco Romero, from LAN team Colombia, visited two important Colombian companies of the industry, namely Huevos Kike and MacPollo. During the evening, LAN/NL offered a networking reception for representatives of Dutch companies, contacts from the poultry sector and local authorities of Bucaramanga, which counted with the participation of FENAVI’s new president Mr. Gonzalo Moreno.

Opening ceremony

On Wednesday 5th, the opening ceremony took place and counted with the participation of the President of Colombia, Mr. Iván Duque, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Andrés Valencia, the Governor of Santander, Mr. Didier Tavera, the President of FENAVI and the President of its board of directors and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Colombia, Mr. Jeroen Roodenburg.

In his speech, Ambassador Roodenburg highlighted the support of the Dutch Government to the implementation of the Peace Agreement in Colombia and the important role that Colombia can play in the challenge of feeding between 9 and 10 billion people by 2050, where the experience of the Netherlands as the world's second largest agri-food exporter, has a lot to offer. As an example, three collaboration areas between the Dutch and Colombian governments were referred to:

• Electronic certification to facilitate trade with support of the NVWA;
• Sustainable, efficient and innovative production by using biomass to generate energy and other products with support of RVO, and;
• Implementing the Fit for Purpose Methodology on land formalisation to make this process faster, cheaper, more transparent and participative with support of Het Kadaster.

Lectures

Furthermore, the congress academic agenda was strengthened with the lectures of two Dutch academic experts. On the one hand, the expert from Wageningen UR, Mrs. Ferry Leenstra, spoke about the challenges of poultry farming in the world and the importance of sustainability, biosecurity, among others.  On the other hand, Mr. Jaap Wagenaar, from Utrecht University, gave a lecture on the reduction of the use of antimicrobials in poultry farming, the critical success factors of the Dutch approach and how it has been implemented in other countries.

Orange Experience

At the Dutch pavilion, congress’ attendees had the opportunity to learn about the technology and services offered by participating companies: Dorset, Dutch Poultry Tech, Trouw Nutrition, Vencomatic Group, Van Aarsen, Hotraco Agri, Foodmate, Dutrion, Intracare, Expoandina and Walinga. The prominent Dutch participation was complemented by companies that had their own exhibition stands at CENFER: Ottevanger Milling Engineers, Hotraco Latin America, Marel Poultry, DSM Nutritional Products Colombia, Provimi, R&M (that represents Pas Reform and Meyn), Sanovo Technology and Moba. With this significant participation, the ‘Orange Experience’ represented around 20% of the total of companies in the XIX National Poultry Congress.

Dutch Happy Hour

On Thursday 6th, at the Dutch Pavilion, LAN/NL hosted the ‘Dutch Happy Hour’ where Dutch, Colombian and international participants had the opportunity to delight in typical Dutch products such as Gouda cheese, beers and souvenirs. The ‘Orange Experience’ proved to serve as an important location to expand the business network and getting in touch with the Dutch poultry industry at the successful XIX edition of the National Poultry Congress.