29/10/2015: At annual conference, IFFO announces award-winners, new president and next year’s conference location

423 delegates from 42 countries attended the 55th IFFO Annual Conference, held on 28th-30th September, 2015 in Berlin. The event is the essential meeting place for the worldwide fishmeal, fish oil and wider marine ingredients industry to network and share information.

Omega Protein and Zhonghai Ocean Science & Technology were recognised as industry-leaders, winning in the conference’s first-ever IFFO annual awards. The 2016/17 President and Vice-President were chosen. And IFFO announced the next annual conference will be 24th-26th October in Bangkok, Thailand.

Presentations and recordings from the conference will be published in October to the members area of www.iffo.net.

A judges panel, drawn from the management board of IFFO, considered submissions from IFFO members who demonstrated leadership or innovation in one or more of the following areas:

• Representing the industry in lobbying and advocacy
• Setting an example to others in responsible business practice, environmental management and/or corporate governance
• Innovation in environmental, social, technical or product areas
• Any other forms of leadership that applicants may put forward

“We certainly appreciate the recognition of the Company’s ongoing efforts to conduct the most responsible, sustainable and socially-aware operations that we can,” said Bret Scholtes, President and CEO Omega Protein, which won in the Leadership category.
          
“Like the other companies considered for this award, Omega Protein has made it a point to educate the world of the sustainable harvest of our collective fisheries and the many benefits provided by the marine ingredients that we create.”
                    
Omega Protein’s achievements included creating artificial reefs from retired fishing vessels, representing IFFO members at the UN Committee on Food Security, publishing a paper on the importance of marine ingredients and producing a Corporate Social Responsibility Report.  The Leadership category finalists included Pesquera Exalmar, Guangdong Haid Group, Loblaw and Tecnologica de Alimentos SA (TASA).
                

Image: William Warby

Zhonghai Ocean won in the Innovation category for developing new pharmaceutical and food grade products from marine raw materials. It beat out the finalists Aker BioMarine, FIF and KD Pharma.

Also at the conference, the IFFO Board members elected Lucky Star’s Mike Copeland as Board President and Blumar Seafoods’ Eduardo Goycoolea as Board Vice President for the term running from January 2016 to December 2017. There were no other changes to the current roster of board members.

Opening dates for Early Bird registration and information on the venue hotel in Bangkok will be announced in due course on www.iffoevents.com. Attendees are encouraged to book their hotel rooms as soon as possible after the announcement to ensure they have secured accommodation.
 
Read more HERE.

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd

For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news