The World Meat Congress 2023, a global meeting of representatives from the meat industry and related sectors, will take place in the Netherlands in October, its organisers have announced.
The International Meat Secretariat (IMS) and the Dutch Meat Industry Association (COV) have announced that the event will take place from October 11 to 13 in the city of Maastricht.
It is expected that several hundred people from the global meat industry will attend, along with representatives of other sectors.
The theme of this year’s congress is ‘Meeting Society and Consumer’.
According to the organisers, key topics on the agenda include the role of meat in the “global climate ambition”, society’s expectations on animal welfare, the labour market, and the impact of geopolitical developments on meat trade and production.
The event will hear from speakers on these issues from the academic world, international organisations and representatives of the meat value chain.
The organisers also said that the congress is attractive for stakeholders not directly working in the international meat business, such as representatives of government, trade organisations, retailers, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
Commenting on the World Meat Congress 2023, Laurens Hoedemaker, president of the COV, said: “The world is on the verge of several major changes and transitions. Social and environmental developments lead to a critical view on the production of meat and meat products.
“At the same time, the sector – helped by technological innovation – is making big strides towards more sustainable production,” Hoedemaker added.
This will be the first World Meat Congress in five years. The organisers say that their focus is on challenges facing the industry and to help meat industry professionals understand the current the future expectations of consumers as well as society.
The opening address of the event will be ‘Healthiness of Meat in our Contemporary Diets’, and will be delivered by Dr. Luc van Loon, professor of the Physiology of Exercise at the Department of Human Biology and Movement Sciences at Maastricht University.
The congress will also feature a plenary debate, to which ministers from some European countries have been invited.
The topic of this debate is ‘The political landscape for the production and consumption of meat’.
