The 2023 Technical Congress and Annual Meetings of the Global Alliance of Pet Food Associations (GAPFA) were held in Brussels from Monday 19 June to Wednesday 21 June, hosted by FEDIAF.

On Tuesday 20 June, nearly 30 GAPFA members joined the discussions of the Technical Congress. The participants warmly welcomed Dr Francisco D’Alessio from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) to present WOAH’s international standards, how to use them and to further strengthen the cooperation with GAPFA in raising awareness of the importance of the international standards. Next, Alexandra de Athayde from the International Feed Industry Federation (IFIF) provided the GAPFA members an overview of the organisation and its key learnings. Other speakers included Camille Fléchet from the World Trade Organisation (WTO) who presented international standards in the context of the WTO SPS work and provided insights with regards to the opportunities to promote their use, and Lucas Cypriano from the World Renderers Organisation (WRO) who gave an update on the sustainability of pet food and rendered pet food ingredients.

GAPFA’s sponsors from Kerry and Takigawa Corporation America helped make the Technical Congress possible.

GAPFA member associations presented their country/regional reports about their current and future activities and emerging issues.

GAPFA achievements in 2023 so far include the WOAH adoption at their General Session in May of the updated Chapter 8.15. Rift Valley Fever which now includes extruded dry pet food on the list of safe commodities.

The following GAPFA Officers were re-elected by the GAPFA General Assembly to serve another term until the next elections in 2024: Carlos A. González (Hill’s Pet Nutrition) as GAPFA President, Michelle Lang (PFIAA) as GAPFA Vice-President for Member Associations, and Balázs Pályi (Mars Petcare) as GAPFA Vice-President for Member Companies.

Open to GAPFA members and invited guests, the 2024 GAPFA Technical Congress and AGM will be held from Monday 17 to Wednesday 19 June, kindly hosted by Pet Food Institute (PFI US) in Minneapolis, United States.