Food Sources

SHANGHAI – 14 July 2008 — ProPak China 2008, the 14th international Processing, Packaging and End-line Printing Exhibition ended last Friday on a high note. Over 500 companies from 21 nations and regions displayed latest technology solutions for the processing and packaging of all manufactured products including dairy, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, beer, beverages, FMCG and industrial products. The exhibition attracted more visitors than at last year’s show, with a total of 13,880 trade buyers attending from 78 countries. Visitors from China made up the majority of attendees, while 14% or 1,948 came from overseas.

ProPak China 2008 broke all previous records increasing the total area of the show to 28,900 sqm. Once again ProPak received the exclusive support in China of international / regional pavilions from the German Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association (VDMA): the largest foreign pavilion at the show, Japan Packaging Institute (JPI), Japan Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Association (JPMMA), Korea Trade Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), Korea Packaging Machinery Association (KPMA), Taiwan Association of Machinery Manufacturers (TAMI), the UK’s Processing & Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA), Food Processing Suppliers Association (FPSA) from USA and Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) representing Canadian and USA companies. Recognising the importance of this trade fair all these national and regional pavilions have again confirmed to support ProPak China 2009.

Mr. Chris Buxton, Chief Executive of PPMA, Processing and Packaging Machinery Association, UK commented: “ProPak China is always well organized and we received good responses from our members for the high quality of the visitors and most of them reserved their spaces for ProPak China 2009.”

For the second time the show organizer, China International Exhibitions Ltd, cooperated with six “Strategic Partners” from China. Strategic partners identified by ProPak China are all 100% Chinese invested companies who are leaders in their particular fields of packaging and processing. These enterprises reserved their new products launch for China ProPak China 2008 and were a focus point for buyers particularly overseas customers attending the fair.

National visitors and group delegation coordinators expressed satisfaction with their meetings and business conducted at ProPak China 2008:

Madam Jin Jian, Secretary General of Shanghai Cosmetic Association commented: “Congratulations to the success of the ProPak China 2008, the trade event not only brought the latest technology for printing and packaging industries, but also the electronic product tracking system required by China’s market. Our members including Shanghai Meilan, Xiangyi Bencao have established successful cooperation agreements with suppliers at the show”. International buyers also expressed satisfaction with the exhibition, Mr. King Pouw, Executive VP - Global Supply Chain from Kellogg, USA, seeking beverage and dairy technology commented: “ ProPak China is well organised for overseas visitors, especially the overseas buyers centre located in East Hall 3, offered a comfortable environment for us to meet with clients. ProPak China is a great show and we have interest to visit again next year. ”

A popular feature of the exhibition this year were the series of conferences covering such subjects as safe manufacturing of food and pharmaceuticals, canned food manufacturing and canning technology, brewing and beverage industry. Margaret Zheng, Marketing Manager for the organiser stated, “our speakers were excellent and offered an important insight to the new regulations and packaging trends in China. We had to add extra seating in all the seminar rooms”.

“The success of ProPak China 2008 was a direct reflection of conditions in the China market today”, commented Brendan Jennings, General Manager of China International Exhibitions. He added, “Chinese manufactures are facing a period of rapidly rising production costs and diminishing margins. For those producers focused on export, they face the double burden of a reduction in tax benefits and the appreciation of the Yuan against all major currencies. Tough times ahead for many whom have only known double digit growth over the last 10 years. One solution to increasing production costs is the introduction of labour saving, faster, energy efficient technology that can produce more products, at a higher quality and lower cost. This has created a new and growing market for the latest processing and packaging technology amongst the expanding Chinese manufacturing base. The response we received from both visitors and exhibitors to this year’s show, confirms that companies are making the right contacts at ProPak China and have made technology sales immediately and stimulated awareness for business opportunities in the future”.