PHOTO: INTERNATIONAL POULTRY COUNCIL
INTERVIEW ▶▶▶ Robin Horel
Looking beyond COVID-19
New IPC president Robin Horel continues to monitor issues and share guidance with his members in the face of COVID-19, while at the same time keeping a long-term focus on sustainability.
BY TREENA HEIN I
t has been only a few months since Robin Horel became Inter- national Poultry Council (IPC) president and in his short time at the helm, the biggest challenge in its history has appeared. Poultry World interviewed him from his home in Canada to
discuss COVID-19 and other issues affecting the global poultry in- dustry. Horel also outlines future IPC goals related to sustainability and more. In late 2005, a core group of poultry industry association execu- tives convened in Germany to form the International Poultry Council. Founding members included Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, the EU, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, and the US. Currently, there and 23 IPC country members and 52 associate members. IPC country members represent more than 95% of the global poultry trade and more than 90% of poultry production. IPC is also recognised as the voice of the poultrymeat industry by FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Na- tions), OIE World Organisation for Animal Health and Codex (the Codex Alimentarius Commission that was established by the World Health Organization and the FAO to develop international food standards).
Why did you want to be IPC president? I wanted to give back to the industry. I retired from my position as president and CEO of CPEPC at the end of November 2019 and this is a way for me to continue to be involved and be of service to the industry that has been so good to me and my family for 43 years. I want to thank the board of directors of CPEPC for agreeing to allow me to continue to represent Canada at the IPC after my retirement which also enabled me to apply for and accept the position of IPC president.
While the IPC conference in April has been postponed, what are its plans for the future? What will the focus be? Currently our plan is to hold the conference at the same venue in Bordeaux, France on 6-9 October 2020. Before it was postponed, the conference planned to focus on a discussion of alternative proteins, a review of international market dynamics and updates from the IPC working groups (sustainability, food safety, animal health & welfare and communications). We were also planning to launch a new working group on trade. One of the planned key topics that will be discussed in October is further championing the United Nations’ Sustainable Develop- ment Goals (SDGs) arising from the IPC’s formal signing and commitment to these during the Sao Paulo meeting in 2019.
What are IPC’s goals for 2020? One of our biggest goals for the coming year is to move our sus- tainability initiatives forward generally, addressing in particular our commitment to the SDGs. IPC decided to focus on five of the UN SDGs where we believe our industry can have the most im- pact. These include ‘zero hunger’ (SDG 2), which relates to sharing good production practices and promoting sustainable production and ‘good health and well-being’ (SDG 3), which involves promot- ing poultry as a healthy choice and sharing good management and manufacturing practices. Our other three chosen SDGs are SDG 4 (using education and training to build capacity to ensure high-quality and sustainable production), SDG 9 (supporting in- novative and sustainable industrialisation) and SDG 13 (reducing carbon footprint). Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, sustainability continues to be a priority for the IPC executive committee and for our new secre- tary general Nicolò Cinotti. After an international search, Nicolò was hired last fall. He is a veterinarian based in Rome and comes
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 4, 2020 7
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
