Pressrelease 23-11-2015 Flick Anticimex’s Pacific region technical manager Gary Stephenson represented AEPMA and the Australian pest management industry at the conference and highlighted key challenges and insights.
A key challenge for pest management in the food industry is the presence and management of rodents. Earlier this year, Flick Anticimex introduced the SMART systems to allow companies to intelligently manage rodents. Read more about SMART here.
Take a peak at Gary’s presentation to the global pest management summit.
The AEPMA and the Australian Pest Management Industry were recently represented at a “coming together of the minds” in the form of the Global Summit for Pest Management Services to the Public Health and Food Safety sectors. This inaugural event was jointly organised by the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) from the USA andConfederation of European Pest Management Associations (CEPA). Considering these two associations haven’t always seen eye to eye, the event was something of a watershed for both. It was acknowledged in the opening introduction, delivered by Bob Rosenberg, NPMA’s chief executive officer and Roland Higgins, director general of CEPA, that relations between the two associations have sometimes been distinctly frosty, with each regarding the other with some suspicion.
However, they did both acknowledge that the globalisation of the food industry necessitated a global approach to pest management in servicing a sector that is economically crucial to pest managers. This conference marked the first formal collaborative event organised by these two associations in their 40 years of existence.
Summing up the feelings of the CEPA hosts, Roland Higgins said: “We are delighted that our call for speakers produced such an impressive array of industry experts and other stakeholders. Together with the Global Summit’s 200 participants from 35 countries they explored the organisation of pest management services in the changing environment of EU and USA regulation, customer requirements and third party certification in food businesses.”
The fact that Australia ‘got a guernsey’ to attend and also a speaker invite was a bit of a coup. AEPMA has been lobbying the US and European Pest Industry associations for a formal invite to either one of the respective conferences for a number of years. AEPMA were extremely pleased to finally receive an invite to the first combined event and the speaker spot was indeed, an additional privilege.
Globalisation was certainly reflected in the conference attendance, with more than 200 delegates, from 35 countries. Regrettably, the UK pest control servicing sector was conspicuous by its virtual absence. Delegate seniority was high and speaker affiliation’s diverse, with delegates representing pest management companies, clients, auditors, regulators and pesticide manufacturers.