As the Conference Chair of the next EFFoST conference, I am very happy to welcome you to Nantes. This is the 6th largest city in France and it is the capital of the Région “Pays de la Loire”. The agri-food sector is very important to this region as it employs 24% of the population. This includes activities in all types of food industries, in particular, meat, cereal products, dairy, ready to eat meals. Thus a number of well-established research and education institutions that focus on topics related to the agri-food sector are located in Nantes including ONIRIS, ESA, AGROCAMPUS higher education and research, and the INRA-Angers/Nantes research centre. The Region Pays de La Loire also actively supports this sector with the new Food Technocampus “Cap Aliment – Food For Tomorrow”.
Lastly, I would like to mention that Nantes is also a beautiful historic city that was the capital of the kings of Brittany. The castle of the kings is still there in the very heart of the city.
I hope that you will enjoy the conference and hope to meet you very soon in Nantes!
Best regards
Prof Alain Le Bail
ONIRIS GEPEA CNRS 6144 / SFR IBSM 4202 (INRA-GEPEA)