The Ross® Turkey, Middle East and Africa (TMEA) team recently celebrated the 20th Ross Middle East & Africa Association (RMEAA) meeting virtually from Nov. 23-24. The RMEAA meeting provides a good platform for distributors to hold meetings with Aviagen Executives to discuss individual, important business issues.

“Our Ross TMEA distributors are an extension of Aviagen® and are the key to the current success of the Ross brand in the region,” explained Bulent Tanyildizi, International Commercial Manager, Ross MEA. “The RMEAA meeting is the most important event in our calendar for Ross GP distributors as they are the Ross brand ambassadors in their designated territories, and this meeting allows both Aviagen and our distributors to discuss the commercial brand strategy for the future, create a strategic synergy between us and our distributors, and also to analyze market indicators with contribution from expert industry guest speakers.

The current pandemic did not stop us from gathering together for the 20th RMEAA, and our virtual meeting had full contribution and attendance from Ross distributors in the TMEA region along with the Aviagen senior executive management team.” Joining valued Ross MEA distributors at the gathering were Aviagen executives -- including CEO, Jan Henriksen and Tom Exley, President of TMEA and guest speakers, David Speller, CEO of Optifarm and Nan-Dirk Mulder, Senior Global Animal Protein Analyst, Rabobank. Bulent Tanyildizi opened the meeting and welcomed the Ross distributors. Jan Henriksen then gave a welcome speech to all distributors and highlighted the challenges Aviagen have faced and how we have overcome the logistical and supply issues during these difficult times by working together with our distributors.

Facing the future – together This year’s meeting was very different since it had to be done virtually over Zoom due to the travel restrictions in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Needless to say, this pandemic has significantly impacted the way we communicate and service our customers. Over the past 8 months, the Ross team has endorsed new technologies such as Zoom and webinars to engage with distributors and customers across the region. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Facing the future together”, highlighting the Ross team and the distributors commitment to working together to ensure the continued success of the Ross brand in the region. Many of the speaker presentations focused on the future and what we can expect to see within the poultry industry going forward.

Our guest speaker, David Speller, offered attendees a valuable insight into his successful operation, Optifarm and the use of futuristic technology in broiler and breeder houses, highlighting the use of data to enhance Ross broiler performance and maintain its position as market leader in the MEA region. Additionally, Nan-Dirk Mulder, highlighted the economic challenges and future predictions for the poultry industry in the MEA region after the COVID-19 pandemic, and what future challenges we can expect to see, especially in feed raw material prices. Neil Clark, Head of Technical Operations, gave a very insightful presentation on Ross GP, PS and broiler performance globally and also locally within the TMEA region, and highlighted what additional performance improvements we can expect to see going forward. Neil also highlighted that the Ross broiler is continuing to perform extremely well and we can expect to see continued improvements in meat yield, average daily gain and feed conversion ratio in the years to come. “This year’s program was designed to give our distributors up-to-date information on the current developments of the global poultry market and how to maintain a competitive edge while overcoming current challenges.

This also gives our Ross distributors confidence in the R&D breeding program and what developments they can expect to see for the Ross brand in the future. The Ross 308 is the preferred product globally thanks to superior and balanced performance at PS and broiler levels, and we will continue to see further improvements in the next 5 years. We hope our TMEA distributors benefited from this year’s meeting and look forward to welcoming them back again next year, and hopefully face-to-face,” concluded Tanyildizi. Puzant Dakessian, CEO of Wadi Poultry, is an RMEAA member who took part in the event.

“Despite the current travel challenges posed by COVID-19, the Ross international team has managed to beat the status quo and embrace the new normal by, once again, bringing all TMEA distributors together virtually with a successful 2 day session. It’s worth noting the carefully and timely selected subjects, such as the Ross brand performance updates, futuristic technologies and post COVID-19 predictions for the poultry industry amongst others. As always, the meeting was efficient, timely and very informative. I wish the best to all the distributors and hope we get out of the current situation soon and are able to meet face-to-face in the near future to celebrate the success of the Ross breed together.”