Ethiopia’s leading animal husbandry international tradeshow enjoyed more than 3000 attendees, making all exhibitors satisfied with the result (quality and quantity of visitors).
Collocating the 29th Ethiopian Society of Animal Production (ESAP) annual conference with the trade fair enabled researchers, Academia, and policymakers to meet in one platform with private sector stakeholders operating along the entire animal husbandry value-chain.
The event was officially opened by high-ranking representatives of Ethiopian government officials and different foreign ambassadors. H.E. Dr. Fikru Regassa, State Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, said, “this trade fair creates a platform for all key stakeholders in the whole livestock value chain to meet, discuss and transact business that can improve productivity in the sector. He also mentioned that the government had set plenty of incentives for those who show interest in working and growing in the sector besides encouraging already established livestock producers to expand their production capacity and start value addition schemes to benefit themselves and the nation, in general serve the African market.
Despite having one of the largest cattle populations in Africa, Ethiopia has been struggling for years to fulfill the sector’s potential. Worldwide, five of agriculture’s top ten commodities are animal-sourced, said Dr. Daniel Temesgen, President – Ethiopian Society of Animal Production. In Africa alone, the market value for animal-sourced foods is expected to rise to USD151billion by 2050. He added that Ethiopia can unleash the huge potential to become a leader in livestock production in the World by acting now, together, and coherently.
According to Mr. Rinus Vann Klinken, Project Manager of SNV BRIDGE, the dairy processors have reached a capacity of processing 340,000 liters of milk per day from 250,000 liters of milk per day within a year. However, 340,000 liters of milk per day for a population of 117 million people is not very much, but it is a gross percentage of 20%. Thus the target is to reach a capacity of processing 1 million liters per day, which is also the ambition of the Ministry, which benefits both businesses and consumers.
The 10th Ethio Poultry Expo (Ethiopex), and 5th African Livestock Exhibition and Congress (ALEC) enabled 3000+ trade visitors from 20 countries to communicate with 50+ exhibitors from 6 countries. Their business conversations led to sales leads, knowledge sharing, and strong business relationships.
Even though the event industry faced many challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the outcome was unexpectedly achieving a remarkable success! The exhibitors were very happy, as a satisfying number of targeted participants visited their booth to continue discussions on existing and new projects.
International companies that recognize the huge potential of Ethiopia – like Aviagen, BigDuthman, Lohman, Babolna Tetra, Trouw Nutrition, and AVICO has participated in the trade fair with the objective of creating a network with the industry stakeholders and promoting their modern equipment’s and products as well as building their brand in the fastest-growing market. The show gives them the perfect platform to meet customers, which they have missed for the last two years due to COVID – 19.
Most of the local participants are very happy to get back to physical shows that enable them to reconnect with industry players and explore new partnership opportunities.
Following the success of the physical event, the organizers also announced a three-month-long series of the online trade fair that is going to take place from 08 November to 29 January. With a more significant number of people realizing the benefits of Digital Trade fairs, it’s highly likely for virtual events to become a permanent fixture in future marketing strategies. Virtual events offer the opportunity for attendees to browse content at their own pace and zoom in on the topics of their choosing much faster.
Register at https://virtual.africanlivestock.net/ You can Participate in the Virtual AFRICAN LIVESTOCK EXHIBITION AND CONGRESS (ALEC) AND ETHIO POULTRY EXPO (ETHIOPEX) using the following link