Pork Commentary
Jim Long, President-CEO Genesus Inc.
Nov. 21, 2016
Eurotier Report
Writing this on the plane returning from Eurotier, held in Hannover, Germany. Massive is the best word to describe Eurotier. 2200 Exhibitors – swine, poultry, and dairy. Held every two years, it is the largest multispecies trade show in the world with tens of thousands of visitors. Well-organized with typical German efficiency, it went four days and every day was busy.
Europe’s concept of trade shows is much more elaborate than North America. Whereas in North America, you have some square footage and then bring in portable backdrops. The European shows have more elaborate booths, built on site for the one-time events with large amounts of square footage. Some exhibits with total costs stretch beyond one million dollars at Eurotier. There is nothing like it in North America. Not sure the huge costs spent at Eurotier by some are recouped. In our opinion, some of the exhibits are ego trips with no economic justification. One of our genetic competitors based in Europe most likely spent $500,000 on Eurotier. What we find interesting is that the same company has lost significant money the last two years and now has pulled out of China, the largest swine market in the world. Take home – we are thankful for our competition each and every day.
Visitors at Eurotier were mostly Western Europeans, with a number of Southeast Asians and Chinese. There were not many from Russia or USA this year.
The swine equipment shown included many designs for farrowing pens and loose housing for sows, either ESF or free access stalls. European rules make such equipment popular. Talking to equipment suppliers, there appears to be little building of new barns in Western European. Due to the financial losses in previous years and what some characterize as lack of faith in future profitability of the swine industry. Europe’s production base is already large with almost double the U.S. sow herd.
The swine equipment companies we talked to told us their best opportunities for new barns are now in China and Southeast Asia. The big profits of Chinese producers (currently about $100 per head) is encouraging expansion. Vietnam is another large market with the evolution of small farms being replaced by large facilities.
Eurotier is organized in large halls. They put species together, ie. swine genetic companies, swine equipment, and swine suppliers are all nestled close together. All swine genetic suppliers were within eyesight of each other in the midst of 22,000 suppliers. Makes it easy for visitors to focus on what they’re interested in and for competing exhibitors to keep track of each other.
At Eurotier, there were two companies selling Genesus – Porc-Ex and JSR Deutschland Hybrids.
Porc-Ex, based in Denmark, was Danbred’s largest marketer of swine genetics. They have chosen to sell Genesus going forward.
JSR Deutschland Hybrids was selling JSR genetics in Germany. They have chosen to be powered by Genesus Genetics going forward.
We are very proud that both these companies have chosen Genesus to be their swine genetic partner. Europe has almost double the sows of North America. With the costs of new technologies in swine genetics (genomics), it is paramount that there are increased revenues to pay for these endeavours. Genesus is already strong in China, Russia, and North America. It is necessary to have revenue to drive faster genetic progress and Europe, as a leading production area, must be engaged. With the partnerships with Porc Ex and JSR Deutschland Hybrids, we have found good people to work with to bring value to producers. As the first North American swine genetic company to come to Europe in scale, it is important we have ideal partners that know the needs and wants of their customers.
Summary
It appears that anyone doubting Europe’s commitment or long term viability as pork producers would be mistaken. High per capita consumption and aggressive export pushes will continue.
COFCO Meats – Genesus Import
Recently, Genesus completed the successful export of two 747’s of registered purebred breeding stock to COFCO Meats. This is the largest single order to one company ever sent to China.
COFCO Meats is a listed firm belonging to the COFCO Corporation, China’s largest agri-business company. COFCO Meat is moving the Chinese meat industry to its next phase of expansion and modernisation. COFCO Meats currently has 190,000 sows in production.
The Genesus animals were sent by charter plane, and great efforts were undertaken by Genesus’ experienced export team to select and transport this combined order to China, while providing the best environment for the pigs along the way. The export process from Canada was supervised by CIQ (the Chinese animal health department) and CFIA (their Canadian counterpart), ensuring that only healthy pigs were sent to China.
Genesus has the world’s largest registered purebred herd, and is known for the most prolific genetics in the industry, as well as the leader in meat quality research and implementation. This made Genesus the perfect partner for COFCO, which has one of China’s largest fully integrated systems. Using the newly imported breeding stock is the fastest way to get the latest Genesus genetics into herds and helps our customers get more money into their wallets faster.
Categorised in: Featured News, Pork Commentary, Press Releases
This post was written by Genesus