Global line-up of speakers to address ASA annual conference
The conference on ‘National Steps to Global Impact’ will be addressed by Paul Finnerty, chief executive, ABP Food Group, Europe’s largest beef exporter with sales in excess of €2bn and 8,000 employees in Ireland, Britain and Europe.
He will be joined by Patrick Boyle, president and chief executive of the giant American Meat Institute, which represents 1,100 US meat companies with a turnover of €70bn.
The main address will be given by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney who will also join in a discussion on ‘Fitting the New Irish CAP’, involving Pekka Pesonen from Copa-Cogeca, Teagasc director Prof Gerry Boyle, and Prof Alan Renwick from the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science.
Other high-powered participants include Prof John O’Brien from Switzerland-based Nestle, the world’s biggest food and drinks maker with sales of €73bn and net profit of €8.5bn in 2012. Nestle employs 330,000 worldwide.
Jim Galvin is travelling home from Chicago where he is chief executive of Lakeview Energy, which produces 450m litres of bio-fuels annually.
Matthew Johnson, European dairy analyst with Rabobank in Utrecht, will discuss prospects for milk production.
And there will be a session on ‘Dairy Stories from Abroad’ involving four young Irish dairy farmers who are farming in Missouri, England, Scotland and Kilkenny.
FBD is once again the conference partner.
