Not only is Ho Chi Minh City with more than 8 Mio inhabitants the largest city in Vietnam; it also hosted the largest livestock exhibition in Vietnam. The 3rd International Livestock, Dairy, Meat Processing, and Aquaculture Exposition (ILDEX) took place in The New Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center of Ho Chi Minh City from March 25th to 27th 2010.

As the aquaculture industry is growing very fast, especially the catfish farming along the Mekong-Delta, for the first time in the course of the ILDEX Vietnam a separate Aquaculture conference took place (March, 26th). The 1-day conference focused on sustainable aquaculture with a correspondingly interesting keynote speech from WWF´s Senior Aquaculture Advisor about “Vietnam Aquaculture and WWF´s Pangasius & Shrimp Dialogues”. BIOMIN contributed not only as the Gold Sponsor of these sessions but also with Pedro Encarnacao from BIOMIN Singapore. The aquaculture specialist gave an oral presentation on “Probiotics in aquaculture: do they work”? Other topics included shrimp and catfish farming, monitoring and controlling diseases, nutritional approaches, extrusion, costs and benefits and how to export to the EU.

ILDEX Vietnam 2010 brought together “international expertise to satisfy local needs”. A lot of farmers, traders and buyers from cities and provinces surrounding Ho Chi Minh City attended the exhibition. The hosts at the BIOMIN booth were very busy giving away product information, trial results and professional advice.

A social event with dinner and dance concluded the first day of the exhibition.