On February 27, 2014, DuPont, a leading science and innovation company, organised a packaging seminar to help manufacturing companies access the most up-to-date techniques. The event took place at Protea Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
The essence of the event was to ensure that Nigeria realise packaging performance, cost savings and environmental sustainability goals as well as ensure that companies maximally tap into 170 million population, rapidly growing middle-class and youthful demography.
The event had over 100 professionals in attendance, who brainstormed on how best to benefit most from the fast-growing food packaging industry as well as fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market across West Africa.
Tagged “Building the future of packaging together in Nigeria,’’ the event provided an avenue for experts to evaluate latest innovations, technologies and trends in the sub-sector.
Addressing the participants in an opening speech, Seydou Kane, country manager, DuPont Nigeria, said food, people and protection of people and environment were priorities of the company, pointing out that one-thirds of all global food production was being wasted in spite of world’s currently 7 billion population that would surge to 9 billion in 2050.
“This substantial waste stems from rudimentary conditions in harvesting techniques, storage, processing, packaging, distribution, preservation and consumption,’’ he said.
“The improvement of packaging quality in particular may play a significant role in preventing this considerably high quantity of food waste,’’ he added.
Lukas Bartek, regional manager for packaging and industry polymers, DuPont, said that it was paramount for local manufacturers in the packaging industry to learn that food wastage was a serious contributory factor to greenhouse gas emission and constituted the bulkiest cost item.
According to him, remarkable amount of savings has been made owing to DuPont’s packaging solutions, attributing it to multidimensional approach in tackling sustainability issues. He added that the firm worked actively for recycling of packaging with lower quantity of raw materials, stating the company’s resolve on cooperation with various fields in addition to research and development.
Juergen Becker, DuPont market development manager, EMEA, said unequivocally that Nigeria could take up a leadership role in the sub-region, given its potential in packaging industry.
Reifenhauser-Kiefel A. Menhart, area sales director, shared the most recent techniques in packaging film production technology and the role of innovations on performance and sustainability of packaging that would reach all the way to consumers.
Eugene Atte, Central and West Africa regional packaging manager, Nestle, drew attention to the country’s growing packaging industry, saying the event provided a vast fruitful platform to evaluate the developments in the industry.
“The global packaging industry offers a $700 billion opportunity,’’ said Bjoern Meth, DuPont regional manager, SAA.
“Digital and Flexo printing have the greatest growth potential. In the face of heightened public and political focus on packaging, DuPont Packaging Graphics will provide the best balanced portfolio in the market in the sweet-spot of growing quality, productivity, productivity and sustainability requirements, using innovative materials for gloval Flexo packaging printing industry.’’
Enjoying devoted attention of food, packaging and printing sector representatives, the conference gave participants the opportunity to exchange opinions about the future of packaging industry and the chance to have a closer look at the most updated technologies.
By: ODINAKA ANUDU
