We went to Trondheim armed with 1,000 magazines of International Aquafeed May/June and 500 copies of the International Aquafeed Directory. On the first rainy morning or August 13, 2013, Norwegian Minister of Fisheries Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, AquaNor chairperson Liv Fjordholm, and the mayor of Trondheim, Rita Ottervik gave interesting speeches about AquaNor, aquaculture and all the brilliant shades of internationalism that the event brings for the industry and locale.
We then heard from the UN FAO's Arnie Mathisen who revealed startling truths about population rises, obesity and poverty and the need for today's aquaculture production output to roughly double by 2050 to meet the nutritional needs of the world. Mathisen and called on all at AquaNor to take heed to this mission together.
There was also a fun element to the event opening with live music and a fashion catwalk showcasing clothes made from salmon.
Inspired and with our diaries full of names and companies we really had to see, we went off to the halls. Hall A-G contained the hundreds of exhibition stands and Hall H ran different seminars. We attended quite a few feed-focused talks from EWOS, Skretting and Aller Aqua which were excellent.
Throughout the week in Trondheim we bumped into familiar faces which of course made the event a sociable one: Joe Kearns from Wenger, David Mack of Aquaculture UK, Shane Hunter from Aqua Biotech, Elizabeth Sweetman from Alltech and International Aquafeed magazine's editorial advisory panel and many of the Novus staff.
Lastly, we felt very lucky to have been so well cared for by the event organisers. We greatly appreciated and got a lot of value from both the press centre and the press dinner on the penultimate night. We are already looking forward to AquaNor 2015 and encourage all to return for a fantastic exhibition.
Look out a full review in the next edition of the print magazine.
Tom Blacker, International Aquafeed magazine
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| The entrance to AquaNor 2013 |
