News
Dutch Prime Minister Rutte pays attention to International Poultry Expertise Centre (IPEC) project
Seed Money Project (SMP) IPEC team joined the official Netherlands Economic mission led by Prime Minister Rutte to Korea on 26-28th September. During the kick-off meeting, the project team members presented the goal of the IPEC project to the PM hoping to get state-level support for this Dutch-Korean project.
Korean interest
As part of the Netherlands Economic Mission led by Prime Minister Rutte and the State Secretary Van Dam to South Korea 26-28th September, the SMP International Poultry Expertise Centre (IPEC) project representatives had a specific program to elaborate the possibilities of bilateral state suppport for the IPEC project with Korean partners. Previously a Korean Parliament and Ministry of Agriculture mission that visited Wageningen Livestock Research, showed much intrest in this initiative. The SMP IPEC core team consisted of Mr Jos Berkvens of Barneveld municipallity, Mr Bertus Bronkhorst of the Dutch Poultry Expertise Centre and Dr Xin-Ying Ren of Wageningen Livestock Research.
Public-private partnership
The International Poultry Expertise Centre is a partnership between private companies, government bodies and educational institutions; all working or involved in the poultry production chain. It is a copy of the Dutch Poultry Expertise Center(PEC). IPEC will focus on South Korea and Asia to enhance research & development; knowledge exchange in the poultry sector; improvement of yields and foodsafety; improvement of production efficiency; innovation of farming, processing, production and logistics; and new influx of professionals and entrepreneurs in the sector.
Thinktank and knowledge platform
The IPEC aims to be a thinktank for poultry sector policies and related poultry production companies, stimulating higher production standards and help setting R&D agenda’s. It provides a platform for knowledge exchange, (on-line) training programs, research group (applied research) with a physical innovation center and training facility in Korea (site office & demo site of most advanced poultry production chain). The IPEC will be set up as a multi-partner project initially led by Wageningen Livestock Research, but with the aim to transform into a structured, self-sustaining and profit generating organization.