In June, the International Meat Secretariat’s 19th World Meat Congress will take place in Paris, attracting 1,000 meat industry participants from all over the world, including New Zealand.

Taking a turn at organising the biennial Congress this time are the two French meat and livestock associations, Interbev and Inaporc, under the official patronage of the French Ministry of Agriculture. The Congress theme is ‘Proudly producing and trading meat.’

B+LNZ Ltd chief executive Scott Champion and AgResearch’s Stewart Ledgard are two of the 40 or so speakers presenting at the two day congress.  Champion will talk about ‘Sheepmeat in Asia – what are the opportunities and challenges’, while Ledgard will look at ‘Life Cycle Assessment and the need for an internationally agreed methodology’.

Other interesting speakers include Christophe Lafougere of GIRAG, ‘Are we moving towards a world price for meat?’ and ‘Meat marketing supertrends’ from IMS marketing committee chairman Chris Lamb, plus US, China and EU views.