The 2014 Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) National Conference in Packaging and Innovation excellence kicked off this morning at the Sofitel Wentworth in Sydney.
Following a formal address by national president of the AIP, Ralph Moyle, president of the World Packaging Organisation, Thomas L Schneider spoke of the road ahead for the packaging industry at large. Schneider identified the rising middle class in developing nations such as India, China and Sub-Saharan Africa as those with the biggest growth opportunities in terms of economic strata.
“The middle class is where the opportunity for packaging is. As these countries grow, their middle class is going to grow and that is where the opportunity is for packaging in food, beverage and electronics,” he said.
Rick Fox, chairman of the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies (PMMI) then took the stage to talk about the industry from a macro-economic perspective where he pinpointed particular trends that are currently taking place within the United States. According to Fox, one of the biggest challenges that North America’s retail ready sector is facing is the push towards online, and advances in technology in relation to smartphone apps.
“The sensitivity to the changes in packaging at the consumer level is phenomenal,” said Fox. “People are walking into the point of sale and scanning the barcode [with their smartphones]. If the label that comes up on the internet is different to the one that they are looking at, they won’t buy the product. That’s the level of sensitivity.”
In addition to Schneider and Fox, other speakers of note included Geoffrey Annison, deputy chief executive and director of health nutrition and scientific affairs at the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) who discussed the move by regulatory bodies to examine the migration of chemicals from packaging into food; and Heini Lehti from the Global Sustainability and Forest Certification Project who spoke about the Chain of Custody Certification and sustainable fibre sourcing.
The 2014 AIP National Conference: Packaging and Innovation Excellence will continue until tomorrow, Wednesday 18 June.