The number of exhibitors, around 350, remained stable compared to the previous edition in 2011. However, the number of visitors noted a slight increase of 1.8 per cent,coming to a total of 6,538 for this year's edition. Exhibitors rated VIV Russia 2013 with a 6.8, visitors rated the event with an very high 8.4. The results of the VIV Russia survey have been analysed, and the reactions and wishes have been identified.

“The overall conclusion is that the stronger emphasis on quality and our pure business-to-business approach have been steps in the right direction,” states Guus van Ham, Project Manager of VIV Russia 2013. The exhibition and the conferences were held in Moscow from 21 to 23 May.

Excellent foundation

“VIV Russia 2013 has created an excellent foundation from which to progress further. The event was a good reflection of the current market conditions in Russia,” concludes Van Ham. The event was not just visited by interested parties from Russia. High-level visitors from neighbouring countries, such as the Ukraine, also attended.

“What we noticed is that the Russian market is rather challenging at the moment. The interest due on loans and the desired ROI mean that a lot of large scale projects are facing a lot of difficulties,” is one of Van Ham’s findings. “But that will not prevent the successful, further development of VIV Russia in the future. Our format appears to be popular, but there are still some segments within the trade fair concept that can be further developed. We knew it was a very wise move to devote attention to the still-growing poultry chain, with additional attention to the turkey sector. This was demonstrated by a fully booked Turkey Conference and a successful WPSA (World's Poultry Science Association) meeting. But we can also apply this template more intensively to the pig chain, dairy sector and feed production sector in general. We want to take another step forward. In the future, we will match Russian and international expertise even more intensively when compiling the total programme.”

Enthusiastically received

The success of the new, themed approach was underlined by enthusiastic reactions of visitors and exhibitors. Dinar Sadykov, head of the Certification Centre ‘Halal’ stated: ”As one of the founding partners of the Eurasian Association of Poultry Farmers, we received a lot of interest from manufacturers both from Russia and the CIS. During the three days of the exhibition many meetings with owners and managers of poultry farms from Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan took place at the stand of the Eurasian Association of Poultry Farmers.

Natalia Yakovleva, president and founder of GC AVIS, mentioned ‘the professional and high-class preparation and organization of the international exhibition’. She commented: “At our stand, we arranged the presentations of technological capabilities of our partner companies Alfa Laval, Anglia Autoflow, Hog Slat and Spectra Vet. Presentations by experts gathered a large number of visitors and interested many Russian farmers. As a result of the participation AVIS and its partners plan to take the joint stand at the next show, to be held in 2015 in Moscow.”

Trade fair and parallel programmes

The combination of a trade fair and parallel programs was relatively new for VIV Russia.

Mr van Ham said: “We are seeing that we can offer an even higher level of contact, both at the trade fair itself and during the parallel programmes, with conferences and seminars. These aspects also drew a very positive reception. This is really providing our exhibitors, partners and visitors exactly with what they want: good programmes, prominent speakers, market information. And that in addition to a successful trade event where all the key suppliers from all the segments - from feed to meat - are represented.”

Emmanuel Pollet of UBI France pointed out that the participants within the French Pavilion were very satisfied: “Not too many visitors”, he said, “but it didn’t really matter since they were well informed on the exhibitors and knew what they were looking for, so when they sat and talked, it was straight to business. We noticed that more and more Russians go to international exhibitions to find the products or technologies they need to develop their business. Our exhibitors will come back in 2015. It’s always good for a company to be an exhibitor at VIV Russia in terms of communication, image or marketing to promote their products and/or technologies.”

Exhibitor feedback

For Brodhan Agri Equipment, the show has been very good, said Phil Gobardhan: “We’ve had good leads so far. We have been expanding our services in recent years, so it is important for us to have been here.”

Also for Fornazor International, VIV Russia 2013 has been very informative. John Fornazor said: “We learned about the strong desire for USA products into this region and also identified the hurdles associated with it. We look forward to taking the Russian market to the next level and thank VIV for setting up such a successful event.”

Paul van Boekholt from Hubbard (ISABALT) launched the new campaign ‘Less Feed, More Meat’ to help customers to produce broiler meat in the most efficient way. He commented: “As market leaders in the supply of broiler breeding stock to the Russian/CIS market it is very important for Hubbard and our distributor ISABALT to be able to meet with our customers and potential customers.”

CropTech-FeedTech and MeatTech

The parallel programmes and specific themes such as CropTech-FeedTech and MeatTech were very well received in Moscow, as well as the intensive focus on animal health and animal welfare.

Mr van Ham explained: “We received a lot of positive feedback. We definitely intend to continue using this format”.

In the main conference, Nan-Dirk Mulder, Food&Agri research analyst for Rabobank presented the strategic outlook for the Russian meat industry towards 2020: 'Shaping the industry for the next stage'. Natalia Shagaida, director of agricultural and food policy at RANHiGS, presented a report on the challenges to better utilize the unused arable land as one opportunity to support future growth of the food production in Russia. Professor Valery Afanasiev, president of the Union of Animal feed producers, focused in his presentation on the prospects of animal feed production in Russia. Russia plans to increase the production of animal feed from 21 million tons to 40 million tons by 2020. Within the animal health track at VIV Russia Mr. S.S. Yakovlev, deputy director for research and consulting work at NPP ‘Avivac’ spoke about the role of veterinary-sanitary measures to ensure the well-being of the animals and support sales. His speech focused on the challenges to prevent infectious diseases from entering Russian enterprises.

Poultry industry

In his report ‘The prospects of livestock and poultry production until 2020’, Vladimir Fisinin, first vice-president of the RAAs, president of the Russian Poultry Union and president of the Russian branch of WPSA, discussed the basic requirements for modern feed lines and improvements in the effectiveness and nutritional value of feed as a critical factor for poultry development. In a specialized turkey production program, several international experts presented the key aspects of modern turkey rearing methods.

The forum ‘Comprehensive approach to veterinary welfare on poultry farms’ was opened by Galina Bobyleva, CEO of Rosptitsesoyuz with her report ‘Economic factors in the development of the poultry industry and WTO regulations’. In this report, she emphasized the main objective of poultry industry: to ensure that healthy birds produce healthy products that meet the demand from the market. In recent years, the industry has been heavily invested in, in the form of soft loans.

VIV Europe 2014

VIV Russia appears to be a positive prelude for VIV Europe in 2014, an event which is already eagerly anticipated.

“We can already announce that we, together with our organising partner ASTI Group, will be focussing specifically on our Russian visitors, with a dedicated Russian Day. We will be inviting specific Russian investors to attend VIV Europe 2014. They will receive a VIP treatment and the event will have an exclusive character with receptions, excursions and meetings with top entrepreneurs. All our communications concerning VIV Europe will be provided in Russian, as well as in Spanish and English,” added Mr van Ham.