The group started the week with update presentations at Aviagen's Edinburgh office from Robin Singleton, Technical Services Manager, Asia; Marc de Beer, Head of Global Nutrition and Kellie Watson, Genomics Initiative Project Manager. From Scotland, they travelled down to Lincolnshire for three days to visit Aviagen customer facilities at Moy Park, who have been winning the best performance awards in the UK for the past 10 years, to discuss their performance and take ideas back with them to New Zealand. They then continued their trip to the Huat Lai facilities in Malaysia, also achieving excellent results from the Ross 308 product.

Aviagen's International Technical Manager, Michael Longley said: "I'd like to pass on the warmest possible welcome to Vassie Govender (National breeder specialist) and Gregg Hitt (Production Manager of Christchurch) and thank our customers for their participation and help in sharing best practice ideas.

"We pride ourselves on our close working relationships with customers and Tegel Foods is no exception. Tegel Foods is a first rate and committed Ross customer, maintaining its relationship with the UK by visiting at least once every two years."

The close partnership between Tegel Foods and Aviagen is principally demonstrated by the latter's effective production base in New Zealand. Aviagen has now acquired the facilities to increase their strong export base in the region.

Vassie Govender said: "I would like to voice my sincere appreciation for Michael's effort in organising the visits to Aviagen. Our trip has been thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable. We would relish the opportunity to visit UK farms in the future to boost our global relationship."

Aviagen ANZ, the respective Australian and New Zealand Aviagen centres, not only provides first class breeding stock from local sources but illustrates how the company is successfully reaching out globally to suit the needs of its customers.