The companies received the award for innovations in the flour milling industry which were on display at the VICTAM trade show.
Other innovation award winners at the conference were Tovalia Intelscan, France, which received the Aquafeed Innovation Award, and Adifo, Belgium, which was given the FIAPP Animal Nutrition Award.
Thousands of visitors came through the doors of the KoelnMesse Exhibition Centre for the conference, held every four years in Cologne. Attendees came from as far away as Australia and every continent was represented at the event, which targets the animal feed, flour and rice milling, grain processing and biomass pelleting industries.
The 276 exhibitors at the trade show were busy with serious trade enquiries and discussions, and there was much to see for the trade professionals as a wide range of new products that were launched at the show.
Conferences held during the event were the FIAAP Conference, Aquafeed Horizons, AEBIOM Pellet Workshop, Petfood Forum Europe 2015, GMP+International Feed Safety Assurance certificate, the IFF Feed Conference and the Global Milling Conference with GRAPAS International 2015.
For the first time ever, FEFAC (the European Feed Manufacturers Federation) held its Annual General Meeting during the event and their members joined the exhibition as well.
Additionally Victam arranged for free tours to the Vitelia feed mill and the newly opened Feed Design Lab in the Netherlands.
Victam celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a celebration dinner and an evening of entertainment for 500 guests at the Flora and botanical gardens in Cologne.
During this dinner the president of the Victam Foundation, Andre Oosterveld, thanked the guests for their continued support of the exhibitions and especially praised the exhibitors for their professional and innovative stands, as well as, the enormous and varied amount of products on display.
Earlier in the day at a press conference, Henk van de Bunt, general manager of Victam International BV, announced that Victam, in conjunction with some of their conference organizers, will shortly be launching a new venture. They will organize a series of industry conferences at a venue near Cologne in early summer of 2017. There will also be an additional area where companies will be able to have table-top exhibits.
Van de Bunt also announced that FIAAP, VICTAM & GRAPAS Asia 2016 will take place from March 29-31, 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand. It will once again be held at the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC). Over half of the available exhibition space for the show is already reserved.
Victam will also celebrate its 25th year since it first organized a show in Southeast Asia.
The exhibitions and conferences will cover animal feed ingredients and additives, aqua feed ingredients and production, biomass pelleting technology, petfood ingredients and production and flour and rice milling & grain processing.
There will be the 2nd meeting of the ASEAN Feed Associations as well as the 2nd edition of the ASEAN Feed and Rice Symposium. These will bring together members of the milling associations from throughout Asia with acknowledged industry experts.
Van de Bunt said there will be some changes within the Victam organization. New members will be appointed to the Board from within the feed, flour and grain industries. This will bring new ideas and experience to its Board.
Van de Bunt announced that he will retire on July 1, 2016. He will, however, still be the general manager for the next event in Bangkok. Van de Bunt said it is the intention of the Board to appoint a new general manager to succeed him and that hopefully either he or she will be in Bangkok for the next show so as to be introduced to the industry.
