sales samples in the kitchen sink). Within two weeks he created a mini-plant and with hard working women, breaking and separating eggs manually, he managed to deliver the product on time. This contract was the start of his career in egg products.

The creation of the European Union made it more difficult to import agricultural products form third countries due to the stricter health controls within the EU and higher levies. So, Filiep, along with a Belgian farmer, started the production of egg products in 1961. Initially it was a manual operation and they employed young women for breaking and separating egg yolk and egg whites. Egg yolks were mixed and salted (up to 15 %) mainly for mayonnaise manufacturers and egg white was frozen, then sold to the bakery and meat industry. Before that beginning, the egg products industry was non-existent. Packing stations did make whole egg from their second quality eggs for local bakeries and so did the hatcheries form their incubator clears.

In the mid sixties they introduced a Dutch breaking machine “COLUMBUS” with a capacity of 6000 eggs per hour. Initially this machine could only produce whole egg. New technology was later developed providing the automatic separation of yolks and whites. From the Dutch producer of this breaking machine Filiep obtained the exclusive distribution rights for the equipment in all of Europe. They sold several hundred of these machines to egg processors, but the main customers were the bigger bakeries.

In the U.K. how they dealt with egg surpluses provided a good start into the sales of equipment. The “British Egg Marketing Board” (BEMB) operated a supply-management program for the egg industry (prior to UK joining the EU). All egg surpluses were broken (processed into whole egg) and frozen in BEMB – approved plants. The plants were Filiep’s biggest customers. They included Croda, Export Packers, Frampton, Goldrei-Foucard, Greenall, Layton, LondEgg, Rannoch, Reich. Today, only Frampton’s and Reich (now known as Deans Foods) are still in the business.

Pasteurization of egg products became compulsory in the late sixties. In 1967, with some Belgian producers, he made a tour in the USA and visited Seymour (Mr. Chamberlain) along with a number of egg processors. In 1972, as a delegate from the Belgian egg packer association, Filiep came to salvage about 70 container loads of Belgian eggs. He managed to recover the eggs and sold them to U.S. egg processors.

In partnership with Mr. De Meester, a Belgian egg producer, they built a modern egg processing plant, BELOVO in Bastogne, Belgium which became one of the most important egg processing plants in Europe. Simultaneously, Filiep also expanded in the egg processing equipment business and created OVOBEL, exclusively for selling expertise and equipment for egg products industry. Filiep remained active in Belovo as sales manager until the early eighties, when he decided to concentrate on Ovobel. His customer base was worldwide. Filiep has the exclusive distribution rights for the Coenraadts egg breaking machines and other equipment for the egg processing industry. He also was the exclusive agent in Europe for Food Engineering Services selling spray driers and special triple tube pasteurizers.

At Ovobel they are not only suppliers of equipment but also have a team of qualified engineers and programmers to design and build complete egg processing plants. Ovobel can even provide in-house plant managers to start up and run the plants as long as required by the clients. Among Filiep’s accomplishments and contributions, he was instrumental in the development of the egg processing industry, from archaic manual operation to the high tech, modern industry of today. With that modernization came new pressures of stricter regulations and higher quality requirements of the big end users. More specifically, he worked to see the creation of fresh liquid products with extended shelf life to which Ovobel contributed with the introduction of the triple tube pasteurizer from FES in Europe and the aseptic packaging. The introduction of the “AlbuMaster” on the Coenraadts breaking machine for the automatic separation of egg yolk and egg white using the latest optical scanning technology reduced the labor requirements considerably. He also played a major role in the creation of the Belgian egg processors association which became the Union of Belgian Egg Processors. He also organized the first meeting of the European Egg Processors Association, which today represents more than 90% of all processors in Europe.

Filiep participated in the activities of the International Egg Commission since the mid sixties and is universally acknowledged as among the most important people in the egg products industry. In 1999, the IEC presented him with the first ever “Denis Wellstead Memorial Trophy” as the International Egg Person of the year 1999. But Filiep likes to credit his many friends in the industry. These include alphabetically: Abreu (Argentina), Bouchier (Belgium), Coenraadts (Holland), Dean (UK), De Meester (Belgium), Enthoven (Holland), Ernst (Denmark), Frampton (UK), Fuchs (Germany), Gandolfi (Italy), Goede (Holland), Honum (Denmark), Imai (Japan), Justeau (France), Kallbergs (Sweden), Kathmann (Germany), Kemp (UK), Lionello (Italy), Manton (UK), Mehrpol (Germany), Monaldi (Italy), Pohlmann (Germany), Rao (India), Schmid (Switzerland), Van Dijk (Holland), Van Den  Burg (Holland), Van De Wiele (Belgium), Zacharias (Brazil).

In the US, he lists as friends, Len Ballas, Chamberlain, Harolds and Joel Cutler, Dan Gardner, Joanne Ivy, Vic Henningsen, Ken Klippen, Bob Sparboe, Art Papetti, Al Pope, Gene Gragory. In Canada, Hugh Wiebe and Vicki Canada and Jane and Brian Elsworth. In Australia his very good friend is Frank Pace. There certainly are many more and he apologizes to those friends in the industry he did not remember at the time of the interview.

For the new generation of egg men, what does Filiep recommends? Try to use as much as possible the experience of the older people in our business, coupled with the new technologies. Become members of the national and international associations and make friends in the industry. Learn languages, which enables direct contacts with your colleagues. And last, but it is very important-if you marry, find a partner who will support you in your work and who can accept your frequent absences.