More than 420 delegates from 42 countries attended the 55th IFFO Annual Conference in Berlin last week. The event proved to be a successful meeting place for the worldwide fishmeal, fish oil and wider marine ingredients industry to network and share information.
IFFO Board members elected Lucky Star’s Mike Copeland as the new Board President and Blumar Seafoods’ Eduardo Goycoolea as Board Vice President for the term January 2016 to December 2017.
A panel of judges, drawn from the management board of IFFO, considered submissions from IFFO members who demonstrated leadership or innovation in one or more of the following areas:
- Representing the industry in lobbying and advocacy
- Setting an example to others in responsible business practice, environmental management and/or corporate governance
- Innovation in environmental, social, technical or product areas
- Other forms of leadership
Omega Protein and Zhonghai Ocean Science & Technology were recognised as industry-leaders, winning the conference’s first-ever IFFO annual awards.
“We certainly appreciate the recognition of the Company’s ongoing efforts to conduct the most responsible, sustainable and socially-aware operations that we can,” said Bret Scholtes, President and CEO Omega Protein, which won in the Leadership category.
“Like the other companies considered for this award, Omega Protein has made it a point to educate the world about the sustainable harvest of our collective fisheries and the many benefits provided by the marine ingredients that we create.”
Omega Protein’s achievements included creating artificial reefs from retired fishing vessels, representing IFFO members at the UN Committee on Food Security, publishing a paper on the importance of marine ingredients, and producing a Corporate Social Responsibility Report.
Leadership category finalists included Pesquera Exalmar, Guangdong Haid Group, Loblaw, and Tecnologica de Alimentos SA (TASA).
Zhonghai Ocean won in the Innovation category for developing new pharmaceutical and food grade products from marine raw materials. It beat finalists Aker BioMarine, FIF and KD Pharma.
The next annual conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from October 24-26, 2016.
Presentations and recordings from the 2015 conference will be published in October to the members’ area of IFFO.
