ProPak India closed the 2019 edition with remarkable results, reflecting the consistent industry growth of processing, packaging industry in India. 5,519 visitors attended the event and over 150 companies from 15 countries took part in the 2019 edition. With 20+ technical seminars, live demos, show features – Packaging Theatre & Meet the Expert Zone – were few highlights that enabled the event to achieve its goal of providing a comprehensive platform offering processing, and packaging technologies for food and beverages, pharma, cosmetic, personal care, and industrial goods.
The event was inaugurated by Dr. Pallavi Darade, IRS, Commissioner FDA, Maharashtra; Dr. Yogesh Kamat-Director, FFSAI (Western Region); Dr. Prabodh Halde, Immediate Past President-AFSTI; Piruz Khambatta, MD, Rasna International; CK Ranganathan, Founder & CMD, Cavinkare India; Samir Limaye, President, Institute of Packaging Machinery Manufacturers of India (IPMMI); and Yogesh Mudras, MD, Informa Markets in India.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Pallavi Darade, IRS, commissioner FDA, Maharashtra, said, “It is a matter of pride for Mumbai and Maharashtra and I believe for India as well, that such an exhibition is happening. Maharashtra has always been at the forefront for such events. The food business is growing exponentially and I believe that exhibitions like this would be of great help especially where people from entire industry are connecting one-to-one, be it food ingredients, health ingredients, processing or packaging all under one roof.”
The show floor witnessed an array of machinery – GW-806N vegetable cutter by Eco Cosmo; Pactech Machinery’s front back wraparound sticker labeling machine PM 150 FBWR 15; VT Corp’s launch of auto-weighing machine and packaging VTC-VGFP-1.1; Bossar’s HFFS machine BMK 2600; Mahisa Packaging’s Speedpack 02 powered by Nordson; Ishida’s weighing and X-Ray inspection machines; Serac’s focus on Combox and Neo filling machine; rigid, paper, flexible packaging material solutions, samples displayed by Huhtamaki PPL, Samkin Industries, Sanjeev Flexi Pack, and Arihnat Packaging. Besides, the show also saw display of labeling systems, industrial sieves, separators, filters and automated solutions, coating solutions, palletizing systems, pneumatics, and much more.
In the current scenario of de-globalization, Sagar Kurade, an industry veteran and MD, Suman Project Consultants moderated an interesting session on the impact of de-globalization phenomena on the food processing industry. The session had 2-level discussions – market impact and technological consequences of de-globalization. Hemant Naik (Kamaths Ourtimes Ice Creams), Samana Tejani (GITS Food Products), Jayesh Gosrani (Goma Process Technology) and Manoj Paul (Heat & Control) were the esteemed panelists.
Making its debut, Packaging Theatre received an impressive response from the visitors. GlobalData ensured the display gave a comprehensive view of the packaging industry globally and highlighting the future trends of the different materials (rigid plastics, metal, flexible, paper, board and glass). Multiple samples were displayed from food, beverage, personal care, health care, and consumer goods industries driving the current trends of convenience, sustainability, personalization and many more.
Expert Zone provided a rare opportunity for professionals to seek information and interact directly with the domain experts. With stalwarts on the panel, the interactions were around color management, quality assurance in packaging, developments in flexography, pre-media’s role, regulations, anti-counterfeiting measures, advancements in packaging across various industries.
De-coding the noise around plastic, EPR, circular economy, IFCA’s conference bought the majority of the stakeholders on one platform to present different perspectives to the audience. Attendees got a chance to hear from leading companies like Cavinkare, Henkel Adhesive Technologies, Tata Starbucks, Uflex, Huhtamaki PPL, Constantia Flexibles, Shatki Industries, Brilliant Polymers, Siegwerk India.
Technology that combines cost-efficiency and sustainability was an underlying theme of technical sessions curated by SIES School of Packaging. Reproflex 3, GVS Cibatech, Mespack, IMA PG, Maverix Platforms, Tricycle Tribe Ventures presented various aspects of this theme. Besides, the audience was glad to hear about connected packaging, authentication solutions to fight counterfeiting from Sproxil India, Holostik India, United Specialty Ink; a first-rate seminar organized by ASPA.
The second day of the show saw Dr. Deepa Bhajekar (d Technology), leading an initiative aimed at acknowledging and celebrating the significant contribution of women to the processing and packaging industry. Coming from diverse background, Asha Sridhar (TUV India), Deepa Naik (Hershey India), Mrunal Joshi (Nichrome India), Meenakshi Sapru (Huhtamaki PPL), Bhavna Shah (MPOC) narrated their journeys, shared their opinions, acknowledged conscious changes taking place at companies for gender balance, and a need to support each other to raise the bar and redefine leadership.
Co-located with Fi India & Hi, the event proved to be of immense value-addition to the food industry as this bought the ingredient manufacturers, processing and packaging companies on a single platform. The next edition of ProPak India will be from 8-10 October 2020 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.