No fewer than 100 investors and exhibitors from 17 countries will attend the edition of the agrofood and plastprintpack event taking place in Lagos.
The event is set to be the largest conference where exhibitors will showcase cutting-edge food processing technology to help boost agricultural production and exports.
The event which is organised by the German trade show specialist, Fairtrade Messe is scheduled to hold 26th to 28th of March 2024, at the Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.
“This year’s event will be different because we have more investors, we will be using three halls, which is a first of its kind, and we have global technology leaders from 17 countries for the exhibition,” said Freyja Detjen, senior project manager, Fairtrade Messe.
In 2022, Nigeria was the largest importer of packaging technology in Africa with £133 million, before South Africa with £175 million and Egypt’s £162 million.
Fairtrade Messe is collaborating with local industry and international stakeholders to bring together food processing machines from foreign countries that would improve the shelf life of Nigerian food and aid food exportation.
Tella Ayodele, senior programme manager of TechnoServe, a non-profit agrofood organisation, who will be exhibiting at the upcoming Fairtrade Messe event, said TechnoServe is happy to be collaborating with fairtrade Messe.
Also, Alexander Isong, president of the Organisation for Technology Advancement of Cold Chain in West Africa (OTACCWA), a partner of Fairtrade Messe, said this year’s agrofood & plastprintpack event will be the biggest in Nigeria.
He stated that a large delegation is expected from the Nigerian government and participation of global stakeholders from 17 countries, a record he noted that is not a common feat.
“The unique part of this year’s event is that we are going to have a larger footprint, we usually use two halls, but this year we are using three halls at the Landmark event.”
“Also, the Nigerian government will be a part of it. This year their participation will be broader and larger because this is the biggest show of its kind in Nigeria,” Isong said.
He added that the conference’s objective is to bring the latest technology to Nigeria to enable quality production, drive industrialisation, aid food production, and create jobs as well as export food products to other countries.
“Most of the companies that come for the event are companies that manufacture farm produce, and for it to have value, it is going to have to be processed, and after processing, it has to be stored.”
“What OTACCWA aims to do is to be able to make Nigeria an export producer. The only way the government can create foreign inflow is through agriculture, this can only be done through certifications for Nigeria’s farms,” Isong said.
Isong also said that the Fairtrade Messe exhibition aims to bring agro machines from outside Nigeria that individual agricultural stakeholders and government agencies can buy without travelling outside the country.
He noted that Nigeria’s farm produce was not certified outside the country, hence why the agricultural industry has not been able to generate a foreign inflow of wealth.
Nigeria’s food production has witnessed a remarkable surge of 39.6 percent in recent years, from £26 billion in 2016 to £36.3 billion in 2020, a value that is projected to rise 48 percent between 2021 and 2024, from £42.3 billion to £62.6 billion, experts say.
It is the second largest investor in plastics technology in Africa with £143 million in 2022, with an annual growth rate of 17.6 percent between 2016 and 2022.
The agrofood & plastprintpack exhibition will have three panels focusing on important agro issues in Nigeria and is to take place in not only Nigeria but other African countries as well.
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