Although the international livestock show SPACE was planned a while ago, and it was on my calendar of activities for months, it was not for a couple more months that I realized I was finally going to attend a trade show since International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) in January 2020. One year and eight months ago!
I think the excitement was obvious, at least for me. I was finally going to meet with people and friends, to see what is going on in the poultry sector, to talk to colleagues, and breathe deeply and relieved. We are back to business.
SPACE is a wonderful trade show. It showcases many things from French companies that might not necessarily be known elsewhere, but that inspire new ideas to think and write about. Many, many international companies also attend. Plus, the expo managers are superb and treat us, journalists, very well.
I have to admit that the first day I was a little doubtful. I spent a couple of hours at the show and realized that there were no foreigners. But, the next day my impression changed. The corridors were full of people and exhibitors were happy to see clients. There were actually many foreign attendants, mainly from Africa and other European countries. I even talked to a group of Peruvians!
Having the chance to see the award winners of Innov’SPACE is always worth looking at. I obviously focused on poultry and got to see things like a new poultry semen collector from IMV Technologies, an organic methionine from Provimi Cargill, a highly-digestible oilseed protein from Valorex, and a web application for tracking and optimization of methanization plants from Agrikomp France.
Some of these products might not seem interesting now to Latin American poultry producers, but eventually they will. The same was a few years ago with technology like the Tibot robot, which I spotted here at SPACE and is now sold in Latin America, too.
I write these lines riding a train to Nantes, France, to fly back home, watching the beautiful scenery of Brittany and dreaming of the fact that, next week, I will attend another trade show ─ FIGAN in Zaragoza, Spain and, fingers crossed, IPPE in January 2022 in Atlanta.
What do you think?
