Online meeting of experts

"In line with networking, the main aim of the conference is to bring practical know-how about ingredients, nutrition and pet food technologies to a comprehensive network of pet food producers, ingredient suppliers and service providers," the organising team announced in advance. The programme featured live presentations and a virtual exhibition to present the products and services offered by the sponsors of the conference.
Paul van der Raad opened the two-day event with a look at trends and market developments in the pet industry. His introductory talk "No pets - no business" succinctly summarised the issues under consideration by sector experts over the two days of the Nordic Pet Food Conference: "The ten biggest trends in the international pet supplies sector include humanisation, e-commerce, premiumisation, sustainability and ingredients," said Paul van der Raad. The trend towards humanisation in particular was driving the development of new products, he said, citing the use of human-grade ingredients in the production of dog food as a particularly popular example, along with products such as ice cream and peanut butter for dogs. Participants in the conference agreed that pets didn't actually need any of these things, but were indulged in them by owners, thus advancing the pet supplies business also. Paul van der Raad described e-commerce as "the winning and fastest growing distribution channel", probably not least in view of its development background during the coronavirus pandemic. The topics of sustainability and ingredients, which are so popular in other sectors too, largely go together when considering the emergence of pet foods containing insect protein, for example. Pet food expert Christian Ihl later gave a well-received talk on this subject. "If it doesn't challenge, it doesn't change you," declared Paul van der Raad, concluding his address.

Another trend touched on by Paul van der Raad in his presentation was the subject of packaging. Ole Jan Myhre spoke on this topic in his talk on "Flexible packaging and innovation for the pet food industry". In a specialised and very technically oriented presentation, he reported on materials for flexible packaging and gave a detailed account of the properties of the various materials. He rounded off his talk with a look at current production processes, citing a large number of examples from the pet food industry. Ole Jan Myhre then drew the attention of the participants to sustainability…