Milling & Baking News - June 17, 2008 - 36

I.A.O.M. Review

Disappointing turnout prompts I.A.O.M. Latin American
District to consider changes

O

RLANDO, FLA. - After years
of holding the Latin American
District Meeting in conjunction with the I.A.O.M. Conference and
Expo, leaders are considering the idea
of conducting their own meeting inde-

pendent of the annual conference in
North America.
Nearly 50 millers from the Latin
American District, which includes
Central America and South America,
attended this year's conference in

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Orlando, but that was a disappointing figure considering that organizers
originally hoped the turnout would be
similar to the 1990 conference in Orlando, which drew 150 from the Latin
American District.
Marco Fava, director of the Latin
American District, said only about 1%
of the I.A.O.M. membership in Latin
America attended this year's event,
which has sparked conversation about
moving the meeting closer to home.
"We're talking about it," Mr. Fava
said. "We can't seem to find a way to
bring more Latin American people to
these events here. We've done everything we can on the technical part.
This year we had very good technical
sessions with varied topics and good
speakers."
Although many I.A.O.M. members
from North America seemed to like
the conference's new mid-week format, Mr. Fava said the change from the
weekend format wasn't well received
by the Latin American contingent.
"Those who came up from Latin
America had to miss a whole week of
work," he said. "When it was on the
weekend, they only had to miss three
or four days of production."
The other issue that may have kept
Latin mill owners from sending their
employees to the conference, Mr. Fava
said, was their shrinking profit margins due to the high cost of wheat. He
said several factors, including a farmers' strike in Argentina over export
taxes, have reduced the region's supply of wheat, forcing Latin American
millers to buy more expensive wheat
from far away countries such as the
United States and Canada.
Mr. Fava said next year's Latin
American District Meeting will be held
as scheduled in conjunction with the
2009 I.A.O.M. Conference and Expo in
Grand Rapids, Mich. But things could
change after that, depending on what
members of the district decide. Mr.
Fava said members may approach the
Latin American Millers Association
(ALIM), which holds its annual meeting in November, to see if it would
be interested in hosting a joint event.
Another option would be to rotate
the I.A.O.M. Latin American meeting
to different sites in Central America
and South America. The third option
would be to keep holding the event
in conjunction with the conference in
North America. MBN
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Milling & Baking News - June 17, 2008

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