WATT hires Ioannis Mavromichalis as editor of Pig International

Ioannis Mavromichalis, who joined WATT in November 2012 as nutrition editor, has expanded his role by assuming the position of editor of Pig International.
Mavromichalis is an author of more than 1,000 articles, journal papers, abstracts, extension reports, newsletters, ghost manuscripts and book chapters. He is the author of a book titled "Applied Nutrition for Young Pigs," and he has been a regular contributor to several internet sites, while holding regular columns in local and international magazines.
Mavromichalis earned his master's degree in 1997 at Kansas State University and his doctorate in 2000 at the University of Illinois. Both degrees were on monogastric nutrition, with emphasis on swine. Following graduation, he worked for Provimi in the U.S. and Europe until 2004 and for Nutral in Spain until 2008.
In 2008, Mavromichalis established an independent consulting and nutrition service based in Spain. His work involves clients at the farm and corporate level, with customers in the European Union, U.S., Argentina, Brazil, China, Australia, Ukraine, Romania, South Africa, Russia and Taiwan.
“Ioannis has proven to be a great addition to our editorial team as nutrition editor, and I’m sure he will bring a new level of expertise and professionalism to Pig International,” said Bruce Plantz, director of content at WATT. “This further strengthens our worldwide team and is part of our commitment to investing in top-notch content for our brands.”
Mavromichalis replaces Roger Abbott, who has taken other freelance assignments and will no longer serve as editor of Pig International. Mavromichalis will continue his duties as nutrition editor for all WATT agribusiness brands, in addition to editing Pig International. He is headquartered in Madrid, Spain, and can be reached at imavromichalis@wattnet.net or via phone at +34.676.253.175.

Vietnam pig producers looking to improve, expand globally

The Vietnamese delegation to EuroTier in November included (from left): Nguyen Cong Phuong of Japfa Comfeed Long An Ltd., Nguyen Thanh Liem of Proconco and Nguyen Phuong Duy of Proconco.

Vietnam pig producers were out in force at EuroTier 2012 looking for new products, ideas and expertise to help their country’s local pig enterprises improve and grow.

The delegation included Nguyen Cong Phuong of Japfa Comfeed Long An Ltd., Nguyen Thanh Liem of Proconco and Nguyen Phuong Duy of Proconco, who together represent more than 21,000 sows, two feed mills and a slaughterhouse in Vietnam.


Over lunch during EuroTier in Hanover, Germany, in November, they told Pig International that their pig producers needed Western companies “to come in and help us reduce mortality rates and increase production with better management expertise, veterinary care, health and safety know-how and genetic improvement.” They said that traceability was also becoming increasingly important in Vietnam. In addition, the slaughterhouses needed to be modernized and become more sophisticated.

“We have four million sows and 28 million pigs in Vietnam, with 65 percent in ‘backyard systems’ and 35 percent in commercial units at the moment, but there is a definite move towards bigger commercial-scale farms at the moment," said the delegation. “We know we need assistance to secure our future in the pig industry.”


The producers, who were the guests of the specialist natural feed additive business Olmix at EuroTier, said there was a high demand for meat in Vietnam and they expected bumper growth in future. However, they said that the country would still have to depend on pork imports for the next few years, while their government developed new policies to help local farming enterprises and encourage sustainability.

At present, Vietnamese consumers are buying frozen pork from China because the fresh, locally produced meat, which they prefer, is more expensive. According tot he delegates, this was due to the cheaper raw materials the Chinese were able to import from the West for processing in China. This was hitting local Vietnamese producers hard, said Thanh Liem, but he said he was confident that the situation would change within a few years, as long as Western countries continued to help Vietnam upgrade its production facilities and supply chain management, as well as its food safety and health status.

Pig industry leaders look to India as new market

Plans to open the door to a potentially lucrative new pig market in India were revealed at the EuroTier Show in Hanover, Germany, November 13.
International pig trade veteran Chris Jackson, of the British Pig Association, who has been investigating and promoting interesting markets for the pig sector for the past 25 years, told Pig International that he was intending to visit the country in December to survey opportunities to export pig genetics to India and help the country build up its fledgling pig business.
Jackson said people would be surprised about the number of pigs already produced there, in spite of the fact that a major percentage of its population followed the Muslim religion and did not eat pork.
“I really do believe there are some great opportunities there, especially for modern genetics, new management systems and up-to-date production methods, as well as the pig health and food safety sectors,” he said.
His optimism was shared by at least one pig breeding company also exhibiting at the international event, which describes itself as the top event for animal production and boasts of more than 2,000 exhibitors from some 50 different countries this year.
Paul Anderson, international sales director for JSR Genetics, said his company was also sending out a team to India to study the market. In fact, it is so optimistic that it has already appointed an agent in the country.
“We are sure there are some opportunities for us over there, especially as the government recently announced plans to set up 16 nucleus units,” he said.
Other pig producing countries are expected to follow in the near future, especially as the region was described as a possible “rising star” by the respected pig industry observer Dr. Mike Varley at the international pig conference in Hanover November 12.

Animal feed prices, production costs highlighted at SPACE 2012

Animal feed prices and production costs were the key topics of conversation among visitors and exhibitors at SPACE 2012, which opened in Rennes, Brittany, France, on September 11, with discussion about the new EU animal welfare regulations also a hot-button topic.
And in spite of the current difficult financial climate for all livestock farmers, the show, which runs until September 14 and is celebrating its 25th anniversary, is bigger than ever before, although attendance remained stable at about 22,100 visitors on the first day compared with figures from 2011.

A leading visitor on opening day was new French President François Hollande. While there, the president urged pig producers and other sectors of the agricultural industry to “go out and conquer new markets by boosting new farms, protecting agricultural land and calming volatility.”
His words were welcomed by many at the show, including Michel Rieu of the French Institute for Pigs, who told Pig International he believes there is plenty of room for French pig producers to grow and consolidate production for the domestic market, as demand for pork grows in the future. He also said he believes the balance of supply and demand will soon lead to higher prices for pork and that the prices will remain high through 2013 and maybe even 2014.
Pig farming, said Rieu, is becoming popular again in France with the number of young French people who want to be pig farmers growing rapidly. “This is a good sign and reflects the excellent model of farming that the industry has here — small, family-style farms with between 300 and 400 pigs per farm,” he said.
Jean-Michel Serres, president of the National Pig Federation in France, told Pig International that “France is a good place for the future.” He said that producers need to consolidate production to secure the domestic market, and that French producers are used to high input costs and can remain competitive under the current wave of high international prices.

Arnaud Buchet, commercial export manager for French pig breeder Nucléus SAS, said the company has been selecting for feed conversion rate, rather than growth, to help French pig producers produce more with less feed for several years, so it is now ahead of the game as feed prices continues to soar on the international markets. As a result, according to Buchet, the company’s sire and female lines are now attracting many new customers in several new markets, including China, Korea and the U.S.

Pig industry seeks more finishing pens

Pig finishing places are in short supply in Northern Ireland at present, according to attendees at the 2009 Northern Ireland Pig Event held near Belfast.
Old and empty barns are being re-fitted and restored at farms across the province, but especially in the counties of Tyrone and Armagh where most pigs are produced. There are even some farm owners contemplating whether to build an entirely new finishing house.
The main driver of this development is the change to contract production province-wide that has seen sow enterprises compete for finishing places at contracting units.
Visitors to the Pig Event heard that about two-thirds of all sows in Northern Ireland are now owned by just 25 businesses. Among them, they are calculated to account for almost 23,000 sows out of a provincial total of 36,500 sows.
Another illustration was provided to the meeting of the changes that can occur quite quickly within a pig industry. In 2008, it was told, nearly 1.29 million pigs were slaughtered at factories in the province and around 35% of these animals were imported from the Irish Republic. Data for 2004 had shown a very similar situation, with slaughterings of almost 1.31 million pigs including approximately 33% of Irish imports. But the four slaughterhouses then in operation were those of Grampian Country Pork, William Grant, Ballygawley Pork and Stevenson & Co. Takeovers and mergers have since altered this list so that only the William Grant name remains; the other three operators now are Vion Pork, Dunbia (Ballymena) and Foyle Meats.

New AI stud for Ireland

Ireland-based pig breeding company Hermitage will open another AI centre near its Kilkenny headquarters by the end of 2009, director Ned Nolan reveals.
He told Pig International magazine that the state-of-the-art stud at Callan will have places for 240 boars, taking the company’s total of AI boars in Ireland to 450, as it experiences a further surge in demand for semen supplies. It also maintains external studs in Germany (200 boars), Italy (180 boars) and the UK (160 boars). Additionally, Hermitage reports new exports of Hylean Maxgro nucleus/GGP animals to Canada and of dam-line purebreds to Japan.