Aviagen, the world's leading poultry breeding company, recently held their third annual Ross Middle East and Africa Distributor Customer Focus Team Meeting in Antalya, Turkey.

The event was designed to meet the demands of the Middle East and Africa marketplace and over thirty technical representatives of Ross Distributors from the Middle East and Africa attended. These technical representatives lead the distributors' local Customer Focus Teams servicing Ross customers in the region to maximise the product performance and business benefits for the whole production chain.

Representatives of distributors from Turkey, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Zambia and South Africa attended the three day meeting, with each distributor giving an overview of their respective markets and their plans for the future. Guest speaker Alistair Robb then discussed the principles of modern processing. The second day took the form of a question and answer forum, where a panel of Aviagen specialists answered questions submitted by the distributors. This proved to be a lively and informative session with many interesting contributions made.

On the third day, the focus was on fertility and the issues which can affect this area. Three working groups rotated regularly so each had the chance to cover the subjects of farming, egg handling and egg breakouts. The meeting concluded with a roundup session.

Barbaros Gokceyrek from Ross Anadolu commented: "This event is important as it gives us the opportunity to keep up to date with industry information, learn the latest techniques for improving productivity and strengthen relationships with Aviagen personnel and other Ross distributors in our region."

Michael Garden, Aviagen's Regional Technical Manager, added: "As always we were delighted to see so many Ross Distributors from all across the region taking time out of their daily responsibilities to attend. The meeting was a great success.

The interactive format of the event proved to be a useful opportunity to share best practise."