Opened by His Royal Highness Prince Akishino, his welcoming speech was followed by sublime singing from the Collegium Cantorum Yokohama Choral Group. Then there was a dazzling floral arrangement dance – Dance of Flowers Live – where the male flower arranger danced several dances suited to the style of each flower before adding them to to a giant arrangement. This made the perfect backdrop for the choir. The scent of wafted, spiralling lilies will stay with me for months to come. A treat for all the senses.
International Dairy Federation president Jeremy Hill summed up the current situation, saying: “Globally, dairy consumption is growing, particularly in emerging markets, and in those geographic sectors where it’s declining there are moves to reverse this through advances in technology and genuine ingenuity.”
There are over 2,000 people here at the summit (a thousand more than expected) and well over 500 of these attended tonight’s cocktail reception.
I was lucky enough to meet with Theo Spierings and Marc Dresser of Fonterra. I also met Bent Østergard of SPX Flow technology, Bob Salter of US-based Charm Sciences, Dr AD Juriannse MD of Nizo Food Research, Ida Berg Hauge who is brave enough to speak out on the anti-dairy lobby in Thursday morning’s marketing session, Joerg Seifert, a member of the IDF organising committee based in Brussels, and outgoing IDF president Jim Begg.
I heard a little about plans for next year’s conference in Israel from Dr Tova Avrech, chair of the organising committee and then walked back to my hotel with the charming Midori Hashizume. A food scientist who trained and carried out her PhD at Reading University, she is one of the 1,000 team members working for Glico Dairy Products on the growth area of confectionery additions to dairy products.
Two others worth a mention are Shun’ichi Dosako of Japan’s Megmilk Snow Brand Co and Sandy Wilkie of Müller-Wiseman in the UK. And my mentor and introducer for the evening? The very kind and helpful Richard Walton of Meiji Holdings.
I’m looking forward to a fascinating few days in Yokohama.
See my pictures here.
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