The IFAJ Congress has concluded but AgWired coverage of the event has not. Over the next several days I’ll be featuring more interviews and video clips. Our schedule and internet access has worked against me a little bit. Cindy and I just got back into Graz where we’ll fly out early tomorrow for St. Louis. At the moment, the internet access here in the hotel is not working. However, I was able to get online behind the desk in the lobby.
So, the photo album is updating as I type. This photo is of the passing of the IFAJ flag from the Austria/Slovenia delegation, represented by Franz Fischler to the American delegation, represented by new IFAJ President Mike Wilson. This is an annual tradition when the current host country passes the flag over to the country that will host the Congress next year (Ft. Worth, TX).
We had a great dinner last night and you can find photos from it in the album. So until I get a little more time online, enjoy the pictures.
IFAJ Congress 2008 Photo Album
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Portoroz is a beautiful little town on the Adriatic coast. The weather changed last night as we came in from Austria and we’ve been getting some light sprinkles all morning.
Greeting the IFAJ Congress at our first dinner in Portoroz was the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Iztok Jarc. He had a challenge because just prior to our dinner the weather changed completely and we had a drenching lightning storm. It forced the restaurant to make some major adjustments to the settings but finally we got everyone under cover and seated.
Our first stop on the Tour III group yesterday was KWB, a company that manufactures biomass heating systems. Basically these are various size heaters using wood chips or wood pellets for fuel.
On my first IFAJ tour stop I spoke with our host, Johann Scholler, Steirerfrucht. They are a fresh fruit packing facility. The main product is apples although they also handle pears and other fruit.
I think this is about the most time I’ve ever had in between posts from an event, including in Japan last year. Cindy and I are in Portoroz, Slovenia doing a little bit of catch up work in our hotel room. We were pretty much in and out of buses all day yesterday traveling down here from Graz, Austria. No time for anything and no internet access.
North America’s fertilizer market is increasing their reliance on imported urea. This reliance has caused Lange-Stegmann to step up and meet the challenge of providing high quality urea at reliable fast lead times. Another situation facing the world is finding a reliable and stable nitrogen source. AGROTAIN International is answering that challenge with its new Stabilized Nitrogen Center. This September, Lange-Stegmann will open the nation’s first and largest inland urea import terminal and AGROTAIN International will open the nation’s first urea manufacturing plant using phase modification.
He’s our outgoing IFAJ President and he’s also 
We saw some beautiful countryside today on our tour outside of Graz. There were actually 3 different tours going on simultaneously. Mine focused on specialty crops (make that apples). Cindy went on one focused on biomass and there was one on mountain farming.
Okay, so I was on the apple tour which included a stop at a fruit packing company and two different apple farms. At our first stop the farmer not only showed us his groves and discussed the various types of apples he grows but he also poured us a glass of wine made from apples. Later on he also poured some stronger apple liquor and even some elderberry wine!