The Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association (OATA) has announced details of its second conference for members of the aquatic industry.
The conference, which will take place at the four-star Coppid Beech Hotel in Bracknell on the 15th and 16th of November, is again set to include an impressive line-up of top name speakers from the industry.
Obviously, with the recent issues in the Japan food carp industry, KHV is going to be a key topic at the event. Speakers from both Israel and Japan will be talking about the current problems and how they are tackling them, and scientists from CEFAS will be explaining the latest breakthroughs in KHV research.
And, in what sounds like it could be an interesting presentation to watch, representatives from The Consumer Association, The Charter Institute of Environmental Health and two animal welfare groups are going to explain to the industry what they need to do to satisfy them.
There's also a presentation on the freight and airline side of the importing business, with speakers from DEFRA and HM Customs and the ARC explaining how the system works, or as many people in the industry might say, how the system should work.
Speakers from the Czech Republic, Singapore and Brazil are also going to explain why we should buy their fish and not those of other countries, with a debate on whether captive breeding is actually a good thing, or not.
OATA told PFK: "Every single delegate responding to a questionnaire circulated after the inaugural event in 2002 said that they wanted OATA to arrange another conference. If as they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then the recipe used seems to have whetted peoples' appetites. 60% of those attending returned satisfaction questionnaires (an extremely high rate), all of whom requested that the OATA conference become a regular calendar feature."
PFK attended the inaugural conference and found the standard of the speakers to be exceptional. We highly recommend that anyone working in the trade attends.