First published in Milling and Grain, May 2015
It does not seem a month since I wrote my inaugural column for MAG magazine as much has happened for our industry in the UK and for me what I thought would not be a busy month turned in to just the opposite as we strive to promote our industry globally.
Profitability is the key that drives us all, which generally means increasing outputs whilst driving down costs through innovative technology with skilled management, taking the best that the world can offer and incorporating it into our business.
A major part of my job is to find global opportunities and bring these to the attention of our industry to save your business some time in searching out potential areas for success. As an independent trade association we are often able to access breaks and new ideas and distribute these to a wide audience. We look for exhibitions and seminars that are particularly relevant to our industry where not only can we showcase our products but where we can find other companies and countries whose ideas and technology will help our industry to develop.
As I write these notes I am preparing to fly to China for the China Animal Husbandry Exhibition and Global Pig Forum. Held in probably the world’s biggest market certainly the world’s biggest pig producer with 48 percent of the world’s pigs. But a difficult market to succeed in, needing a great deal of patient understanding and a country in which developing long-term relationships is absolutely key to success.
Following on from this exhibition we are supporting Livestock Philippines where you could not hope to find a more contrasting country and culture albeit that a lot of big business is run by the ethnic Chinese population who still maintain their business sense and drive after many generations. Here, you have a country of 100,000,000 people about 40 percent of whom still work in agriculture living on some 7000 islands that make up their country contributing 20 percent of GDP.
With the country’s ever-increasing population accompanied by a progressively shrinking land space, Filipino farmers are adopting more efficient farming systems. Fortunately, through farming systems researches new techniques are continuously being developed, particularly for smallholder farmers. For example, it has been shown that by integrating livestock and fish production systems the total food protein yield and profitability from a unit area of land is significantly increased.
The Philippines has a well-developed livestock, the third largest pig population in the region following China and Vietnam. It also has a fairly-developed aquaculture industry. Yet, in spite of the profitability of integrated livestock-fish farming systems demonstrated by local researchers, very few Filipino entrepreneurs have adopted the technology.
The few entrepreneurs who have adopted integrated livestock-fish production technology will also serve to encourage farmers to venture in this farming system. With self-sufficiency in poultry a substantial pig and aquaculture industry the demand for efficient storage and milling facilities is high, without this industry none of the intensive livestock production can be maintained.
Livestock Philippines 2015 will be held in Manila from June 24-26, 2015. Hosted by the Department of Agriculture and, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS). On show there will be, feed production management, animal health and nutrition, closed housing systems, centralised slaughtering facilities and advanced meat processing and packaging technologies. Please come and visit us there.
As we continue to look forward Indonesia will be our next country to visit in July, with 250 million people and more than 65 million with disposable incomes this is a country that we need to develop stronger trading relationships with. We will be at Indo Livestock. Look for us!
To keep up-to-date you can follow us on twitter: @AgrictecExports
Read the magazine HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine GFMT
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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