BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — On the occasion of the XXVI Congress of the European Feed Manufacturers’ Federation (FEFAC) “How to Stay Profitable in Volatile Times,” June 5-8 in Cracow, Poland, the FEFAC General Assembly elected its new Praesidium and welcomed two new full members.

The new president of FEFAC is Ruud Tijssens, who is director of corporate affairs in Agrifirm Group, based in The Netherlands. Tijssens succeeds to Patrick Vanden Avenne, who has been FEFAC’s president since 2010.

The following Members of the FEFAC Praesidium were elected to support him in his task:
• Alain Guillaume, Treasurer, GLON SANDERS, SNIA, France;
• Alberto Allodi, ASSALZOO, Italy;
• Tony Bell, ForFarmers, AIC, United Kingdom;
• Witold Obidzinski, DE HEUS, Poland;
• Anton Einberger, Trouw Nutrition, DVT, Germany;
• Christina De Sousa, RAPORAL, Portugal;
• Jesper Pagh, DLG, Denmark; and
• Michael Karas, Primagra, Czech Republic.

During the event in Cracow, the FEFAC General Assembly welcomed the applications for active membership of the Croatian Feed Industry Association (Grupacila Industrije Stocne Hrane – CFIA) and the Bulgarian compound feed manufacturers association (Bulgarian Feed Manufacturers Association – BFMA).

The active membership was made official in the margin of the FEFAC Congress by an agreement between FEFAC and its two new active members signed by Stjepan Sabljak, president, for CFIA and Mrs. Hristineta Stancheva, president, for BFMA. It will go into effect July 1.

CFIA has been an observer member of FEFAC since 2008, as is any association representing feed companies based in E.U. candidate countries. The official integration of Croatia in the E.U.-28 paved the way to full membership of CFIA. In 2012, CFIA counted 124 members for a total compound feed production of 640,000 tonnes.

BFMA’s membership to FEFAC is the natural outcome of the development of the national association since the adhesion of Bulgaria to the E.U. BFMA represents a compound feed production of 900,000 tonnes for 66 members.

With these two new members, FEFAC will be comprised of 24 associations from 23 E.U. Member States.