REVIEW ▶▶▶


Qingdao: The start of a new formula in China


VIV exhibitions in China are nothing new but the inaugural edition of VIV Qingdao signalled a new era in the Chinese events calendar. From 2019 the event will be held every year in September in Qingdao’s impressive Cosmopolitan Exposition centre. Pig Progress was there to visit and find out more.


BY ROSIE BURGIN AND VINCENT TER BEEK H


eld concurrently with an international horticulture event on the opposite side of the venue, and un- der an umbrella event named Asia Agro Food Expo 2019 (AAFEX), VIV Qingdao was an important part


of a multifaceted event covering three days in mid-Septem- ber. The organisers were happy to report a 25% increase in visitors compared to VIV China 2018, with 4,000 of the more than 20,000 total registered visitors coming specifically for one of the many side events, such as the Animal Disease Monitoring and Biosecurity Forum (see box). The showground itself was typically huge for China, with 450 exhibiting com- panies from over 30 counties and regions covering over 50,000 m2


of exhibition space. “Generally speaking, the show has met our expectations,” Biosecurity is key in times of ASF


With African Swine Fever (ASF) in China, it was interesting to see how the topic of biose- curity was addressed at VIV Qingdao. As part of a range of side-events, VIV Qingdao had also planned a side-event on biosecurity. Pig Progress editor Vincent ter Beek kicked-off the conference with a current overview of the ASF situation in Europe and Asia – except for China. The next speaker was Dr Fan Fuhao, from the Center of Quality Test and Supervision for Breeding Swine which is part of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. He delved into the


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topic of salivology testing. Lourens Heres, DVM, representing Darling Ingredients, spoke about the safety of processing animal by-products. In his presentation he touched on the situation in the EU: How is the process of creating animal by-products controlled in the EU, what raw material categories apply and what sterilisation conditions must be met under EU law? Chris Jackson, speaking on behalf of the British Pig Association, then talked about the UK’s policies and practices to prevent the spread of swine diseases. These included ‘no entry’ for farm visitors,


▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 35, No. 9, 2019


proper training for farm staff and having sev- eral farm policies in place on what to do in the event of deliveries or pig movements, dis- posal of deadstock and general hygiene rules. More biosecurity followed in the presentation of Niu Yufeng of CID Lines, a Belgian bio- security company. Closing the session was Tom Duinhof, speaking on behalf of Royal GD. He first talked about the costs of disease on farms – and then how big data can be used to help monitor the animal health situa- tion. GD had developed the web-based tool Plexus for this.


explained Isabel Yuan, project manager of VNU Exhibitions Asia, which took over the running of this year’s event from their Dutch-based counterparts. “It’s the first edition since the VIV China local team took charge of all the business for VIV in China. At the same time, we moved to Qingdao this year, a new city for us. Fortunately, the result has been satisfactory.” Although the recent outbreaks of ASF are still creating uncer- tainty in the domestic market, it is also creating opportuni- ties. Yuan explains, “the Chinese animal husbandry industry is speeding up its upgrading. Some small farmers will be weed- ed out. Meanwhile, some big farming companies will become stronger. So both need to find their own new opportunities in the market and the VIV show is still their first choice for doing so. On the other hand, VIV is traditionally strong on poultry. Due to ASF the need for poultry products is growing fast which will lead to prosperity in the related industry. So in that sense we haven’t lacked exhibitors or visitors, but of course, we can always do better next year”.


Innovations rewarded New at this year’s event were the InnovAction awards with 26 innovative products displayed in the InnovAction area in hall 1. Two types of InnovAction awards were made; the ‘Innova- tive Product of the Year’ which was judged by a panel of


PHOTOS: VINCENT TER BEEK


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