The annual International Association of Operative Millers’ Middle East and Africa Conference & Expo is returning to Africa and is expected to attract more than 600 delegates from 50 countries.
Continuing with the revitalization started last year, the three-day conference program will again include topics on management, technical issues, What’s New, feed milling technology and trends and trading, presented by international and national speakers. The annual event alternates between the Middle East and Africa. Last year it was in the United Arab Emirates.
The event is Oct. 22-25 at the Movenpick Hotel & Residences in Nairobi, Kenya, in the heart of Westlands, the city’s most popular business and commercial district. It is within easy access of the city center with entertainment and shopping. The conference portion of the event will be on the fourth floor in the Almasi Ballroom while the exhibition will be on the ground floor (Hall of Africa and car park).
Ian Roberts, chief technical officer with Bühler, will give the opening speech on Tuesday, Oct. 23, on “Innovating to feed 9 billion people in 2050: Providing adequate safe, nutritious and affordable food in a sustainable manner.” Toward the end of the event, Dan Basse, president and founder of AgResources Co., will discuss trade and the United States. His talk, “Trump tariffs and declining world wheat export stocks offers dynamic world grain market in 2019,” will be Thursday, Oct. 25.
More information and registration is available at http://iaom-mea.com/IAOM-KENYA-2018/.
Educational sessions
Educational sessions are divided into technical presentations, feed milling technology and trends, What’s New, and trading. Technical sessions will cover a range of issues and are scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday.
Tuesday’s topics include heat treatment as an alternative to fumigation; the intelligent mill; new methods for classifying raw materials; and solar power in the milling industry. Tarik Gahi, milling and baking technologist, U.S. Wheat Associates, will conclude Tuesday’s technical sessions with a panel discussion.
Thursday’s technical sessions will cover new solutions to automate quality control and lab analytics; improving pasta quality; noodle processing technology; controlling wheat and flour quality for profitability; impacts of fortification and the millers’ role in nutritional intake. Gahi will moderate a second panel discussion to conclude the sessions.
The feed milling sessions will address mycotoxin control, healthy animals without antibiotics and a panel Q&A moderated by Roderick Prince, international and pet business director, Trouw Nutrition. In What’s New, speakers will discuss efficiency, sanitation and energy consumption; creating of a milling performance index; a new NIR instrument; mixer systems and micro dosers; innovative silo and intake structures; digitalization; monitoring stored wheat with CO2 sensing; aeration systems; silo temperature and control; retail flour packaging; and how packaging material impacts speed of a flour filling line.
Trading sessions will include market outlooks on Australia, the United States, France, the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, as well as two panel Q&A sessions and a guide to the English arbitration processes by Patrick Battersby, a solicitor with Davies Battersby Solicitors, U.K.
Expo
This year’s expo will feature 90 booths with multinational companies from the flour milling and feed manufacturing industries, allied traders, grain millers and milling machine manufacturers. It is located in the Hall of Africa, the biggest pillar-less exhibition hall in Nairobi. Booth numbers 1-48 will be fully carpeted and air conditioned within the Hall of Africa, while 49-90 will be in the car park area and is exclusively for those exhibiting heavy machinery.
Expo hall access is available through the main entrance of the hotel and its car park. Coffee and lunch breaks are within the expo hall enhancing interaction between exhibitors and professionals in the flour and feed milling industries. The expo is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Oct. 23-25.
Special events
Several evening events and special tours and activities are available. A welcome cocktail dinner is planned from 7 to 10 p.m. on Oct. 22 while the Trader’s Dinner is planned from 8 to 10 p.m. on Oct. 23.
The final scheduled evening event is the local host dinner from 7:30 to 10 p.m. on Oct. 24.
Special activities will be announced soon. In addition to its urban core, Nairobi is home to Nairobi National Park, a large game reserve known for breeding endangered black rhinos and home to giraffes, zebras and lions. Next to it is an elephant orphanage operated by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The city often is used as a starting point for safari trips elsewhere in Kenya.
