EPP continues to grow and is now present also in the African continent! 
President Gert van Beek officially welcomes 10 new EPP-Members during the yearly sappo/AGM conference in South Africa as guest speaker.

EPP Board and Head office is proud to announce that with South Africa now a first branch in a non-European country is member of the board. This was made possible by the close cooperation with the South African Pork Producers (sappo), who convinced together with EPP 10 pig farmers from South Africa to joined the club within the last weeks. With this step the minimum number for the establishment of a national branch is achieved. As a result, South Africa now has with Johann Kotzé a representative in the international EPP board. Together with the representatives from the Netherlands and Germany but also the national groups of Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, Ireland, Finland, Austria and Switzerland the board members stand for the interests of all EPP-Members.

For about 1.5 years, Sappo and EPP have been working closely together, which began with mutual visits and discussions and has now been consolidated in the form of a national branch. The expansion of the personal network towards EPP and the DLG provides a good opportunity for the members in South Africa to obtain valuable information for the further development of their farms.

As a next step, both partners plan an exchange of students / young farmers and also a study trip for interested EPP members from other countries to South Africa.

After EPP Manager Sven Häuser first gained insights into the organization of pig production in South Africa in December 2018, EPP President Gert van Beek now was a guest speaker at the annual conference of South African pig farmers. He took this opportunity to introduce EPP and to officially hand over the founding certificate to Johann van der Walt, president of the sappo board of directors, and Johan Kotzé, CEO of sappo, on 4 September 2019.

Looking forward to a fruitful cooperation!