Page 19 - Vol.39-No.6

POULTRY

HUBBARD PREMIUM FORUM 2023 FOCUSSED

ON SUSTAINABILITY IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN

for our large Premium product range to
support Hubbard customers to reduce
their carbon footprint. At the same time
On 12-14 June 2023 Hubbard organ- he concluded that there is a big need
ised its biennial Hubbard Premium Forum. for more specific research with slower
About 150 attendees came from 29 growing chickens and to use a standard-
countries all over the world to the beauti- ised model to compare the environmental
ful area of Evian on the southern shores of footprint between production systems

Lake of Geneva in France. During this very and countries. Claude Toudic (Hubbard
well-received forum Hubbard experts and Premium Product Manager), Mathieu
external speakers shared their experience Lardiere (Hubbard Technical Transfer
with the Hubbard Premium breeds with Manager) and Victor Lesigne (Hubbard
the audience and gave insights into dif- Technical Manager EMEA) respectively
ferent types of slower growing chickens shared detailed information about how
markets and management practices. In to move away from fossil fuels in the
addition to the “Social” component of near future, how well the Premium Parent sustainability of models with giveaways.
sustainability, by using slow(er) growing Stock are performing in the field, and how One of the solutions is to set up distribu-
Premium chickens, also the other two el- to further optimise breeder performance tion channels with micro-brooders using
ements (“Economics” and “Environmental using Hubbard’s husbandry and manage- dual purpose breeds replacing the village
footprint”) were addressed. ment recommendations. Mathieu Lardiere birds and to show how much productivity
also introduced the updated Performance gains are possible. David Pitman of Pitman
Objectives for the Hubbard JA87 and Family Farms in California (USA) lead the
REDBRO parent stock females.
audience through his numerous trips to
Of the external speakers François Europe, starting in 2008 when he was
Cadudal of GIRA Food kicked off with looking at slower growing chickens for the
a very comprehensive summary on the first time. Nowadays the family company
dynamics of the broiler chicken meat seg- is offering a range of high-quality wel-
mentation in Europe. Peter van Horne of fare chickens, including Mary’s Heirloom
Wageningen University then presented Chicken, and coming soon Mary’s Legacy
At the start Jean Lebec (Hubbard one of his recent papers comparing the Chicken following the BCC requirements.
Sales Manager France) introduced the production costs between conventional Ruedi Zweifel of AVIFORUM in Switzer-
attendees to the current organisation and broilers and ECC chickens in The Neth- land gave a brief of the structure of the
situation of the French broiler market be- erlands, Poland, France, Spain, Germany, Swiss poultry industry, which with many
fore Bruno Briand (Hubbard Global Sales and Italy. He showed that ECC chickens small farms is completely different to
Director) explained the large Hubbard can be produced at an additional cost of many other European countries. He also
Premium product range serving a wide 15-20% compared to conventional broil- showed the results of research done on
variety of markets covering Dual Purpose, ers at higher stocking densities. Vivienne nutrition of the Hubbard S757 free range
Label Rouge, Organic, 56-day Free Range Harris of UK retailer Marks & Spencer chickens, and the ranging behaviour of
and the more recent indoor systems such shared their positive experience in in- the Hubbard JA987 and Hubbard REDBRO
as Better Chicken Commitment (BCC). An troducing Oakham Gold, slower reared chickens which has led to the acceptance
update on the development of the BCC higher welfare fresh chicken in Septem- of both breeds, plus the JA957, for the
was then shared by Paul van Boekholt ber 2022, making 100% of M&S’s fresh Swiss private label guidelines “IP-Suisse”.
(Hubbard Business Manager Northern chicken BCC compliant, the first and only Laura Warin of ITAVI in France presented
Europe). Olivier Rochard (Hubbard MD) UK retailer to do so. She also addressed the results of research done on the use of
and Frederic Fagnoul (Hubbard R&D Di- how they communicated about it with environmental enrichments and what this
rector) highlighted that Hubbard con- the UK consumers and summarised the can bring to Premium chickens, in which
tinues to invest heavily in the Premium achieved benefits for the birds, farmers, she compared the different behaviour of
selection centres and technologies to consumers and M&S. Maureen Stickel, conventional broilers and Hubbard RED-
lower the carbon footprint of the Hub- director of the World Poultry Foundation BRO chickens.
bard Premium lines by further improving (WPF), touched on a completely different
robustness, FCR and meat yields using the subject while presenting about sustaina- Listening to the very positive reactions
most modern selection techniques. James ble local poultry production in developing of all the attendees, the 4th Hubbard
Bentley (Hubbard Global Technical Di- countries. It is WPF’s mission to improve Premium Forum has been a great suc-
rector) focused on Hubbard’s experience lives globally through engagement with ces and therefore we are already looking
with the use of alternative feed ingre- poultry value chains with a heavy fo- forward to meeting our customers at our
dients and optimised feed formulations cus on training, on social impact and on next Hubbard Premium Forum in 2025.

Vol. 39 No. 6 17
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