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This year’s conference of the European pig producers Club (EPP) from 31 May until 3 June 2007 in Gent (Belgium) resulted in an extremely positive response from the participants. The conference topic was “How to produce quality pig meat?” and EPP president Per Bach Laursen welcomed more than 300 participants from 12 different nations.

 

On the first day several speakers informed about the current situation of the Belgian pig production. Among other things they elaborated on the traceability in the production chain up to the product at the butcher’s counter.

 

On the second day the participants went to Brussels where Denis Simonin from DG Sanco (Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs) of the European Commission gave a lecture about the future politics of the European Commission in animal wellbeing. Afterwards Francois Prévost from DG Agri (Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development) informed the participants about the current situation of the European pig market as well as its future perspectives.

 

The main topic on the third day was the practice. Three Belgian EPP member farms were “virtual” visited. Numerous photos, digital movies and different farm facts provided a good insight into the conditions of production and the performance data.

 

In the afternoon the participants visited the new building of a pig keeper with 750 spaces and another farm with 1000 sows and a slurry recycling plant with separation and biological processing.

 

In line with the EPP general meeting on 1 June 2007 EPP president Per Bach Laursen and manager Dr. Martin Ziron looked back on a successful year. The number of EPP members has increased by 14% to 426 members from 22 nations since the last congress.

 

The next EPP congress will take place from 5 – 8 June 2008 in Norwich, Great Britain. EPP members and all others interested in the congress are cordially invited to participate.

 

The speeches of this year’s congress will be available completly here....