Europatat announces Congress details

Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, is pleased to announce the final programme of the annual Europatat Congress, in Brussels (Belgium) on 22-23 May 2014. Taking place in the capital of Europe during the EU election week, the congress will focus under the slogan “Heading towards 2020” on the challenges ahead for the potato trade.

Friday’s plenary session will feature well-known experts Joeri Van den Bergh (Insites Consulting) on branding to Generation Y and Virginie Pernin (GIRA Foodservice) on trends in the European Foodservice Market as well as Ladislav Miko, Deputy-Director General for the food chain at the EU Commission DG SANCO.

On Thursday participants will have the chance to review the different activities of Europatat during 2 parallell meeting sessions of the various Europatat Commissions (seed potatoes, ware potatoes, early potatoes & packers and technical & regulatory issues). These sessions will also feature different guest speakers.

Confirmed speakers thus far include Kate Cox, Marketing Manager Potato Council, who will talk on the industry’s communication actions undertaken in the United Kingdom and Dick Zelhorst, Chief Purchase Officer Aviko, on the trends in the processing industry. Henk van de Haar from the Dutch General Inspection Service for Agricultural Seed and Seed Potatoes and Torsten Spill, Managing Director Solana, will discuss the implications of the future EU quality standards for seed potatoes.

Frédéric Rosseneu, Secretary-General of Europatat, says: “We have a great speaker line-up and are looking forward to their interventions on some of the challenges ahead for the potato trade. The congress will bring together the key decision makers in the European potato sector providing fresh ideas for the industry.” Besides the professional part of the congress, there are also several social activities organised to reinforce the networking and contact among the European potato community.