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Business opportunities leveraged through drinktec and PackTech
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Friday, 19 November, 2010, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Irum Khan, Mumbai
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The Indian demand for food processing and packaging machinery made in Germany continues to rise and within the first 8 months of this year the exports to India increased by 43 % in comparison with the same period last year and reached a volume of 36 million Euros.
German companies do not only supply their food processing and packaging machinery to India but also invest in the country itself. Many companies can look back on a long tradition in the country. They have recognised the considerable potential of India, established own production facilities to serve the local market as well as other South Asian markets. With this they have created a lot of jobs.
In the wake of growing importance of the Indo- German trade ties, the vision to bring in a synergy between the liquid technology and the packaging technology on a single platform was transcended through the drinktec India and International Pack Tech Show, and the first day of the three-day event ( November -18-20) assured that India is the market which could not be neglected for global business. The event organisers were Messe München GmbH for drinktec and Messe Düsseldorf GmbH and its subsidiary Messe Düsseldorf India Pvt. Ltd for Pack Tech India.
VDMA, the German food and packaging machine trade association, Frankfurt (www. vdma.com), is a general ally for drinktec, drink technology India, Interpack and International PackTech India.
The event was inaugurated by Dr Leopold Heldmann, Consul General, Federal Republic of Germany in Mumbai. Pradeep Poddar, MD and CEO, Mount Everest Mineral Water Ltd, Richard Clemens, MD, food processing and packaging division, VDMA, were the guests of honour.
Peter Smith, Schmitz, head of department, International Promotions and Exhibitions Management, Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, said, “The synergy has become a reality and we are pleased to be a part of it. We are here for the 6th edition of Pack Tech and we have 113 companies from 16 countries participating. Germany was participating with a German Pavilion dedicated to the PackTech event.”
For drinktec around 90 exhibitors are participating from 14 countries. There are around 45 Indian companies and 55 overseas companies participating in drinktec. Overall, there are 31 German companies participating at the two events.
According to VDMA MD Rajesh Nath, hygiene would be the focus of this year’s event given the awareness on environment friendly technology. He said, “German companies are looking to produce more energy efficient and biodegradable technology which would also be easy on recycling. Also, they are looking forward to creating efficient technology with the support of local traders in India. India has the basic technology produced in the country itself with competition from China, Taiwan and Korea. But for advanced technology it has to rely on Germany and Italy. VDMA acts as a bridge head between the German and Indian Technology. Germany is looking forward to investing in India by opening its production facilities, creating joint ventures or by opening sales offices in India.”
With a population of 1.1 billion people India is one of the largest sales markets for food and beverages and the demand is still rising. India has the strongest growth potential behind China. Today India is the tenth largest economy in the world and the second largest food processor world wide. Actually a great share of the produced food is not processed. The food industry is in focus of the Indian government. With the “Vision 2015”-programme the ministry of food processing industries is pushing the industry. Investments of $ 25 billion will be made till 2015. These developments will be accompanied by an increasing demand for all kind of food processing and packaging machinery.
With 52.5 million Euros worth of supplies in 2009, Germany is one of the most important suppliers of food processing and packaging machinery after Italy to India. The demand for state-of-the-art food processing and packaging machinery from Germany is still high. The German manufacturers of this machinery offer themselves as powerful partners for the expansion of India’s industry. Their advanced technology and the variety of their products, which are optimally tailored to the specific customer requirements, strengthen the economic performance of Indian manufacturers.
The exhibitors list ranged from aseptic systems, filling and packaging technology, packaging materials, PET technology, process technology and process automation, raw materials/additives and restaurant and catering equipment.
Rockman Group, the pioneers of micro-brewery in India called the “Rockman’s Beer Island,” enthusiastically exhibited the micro-brewery launched by the company a year ago at the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon in Delhi.
Oliver Jakob, representing the stall, said, “We have launched the microbrewery in India. It’s a “prew pup” concept whereby the brewery is installed in a restaurant brewing fresh beer and the customer experiencing the brewing process. It’s like front end cooking processing. It replaces the traditional industrial brewery system.”
The concept of micro-brewery is known all over the world but still is nascent in India and drinktec seemed to be the right platform for creating awareness about the same. However, the company was little sceptical about the organisers of the two events selecting Mumbai for the exhibition and not a place like Delhi which was more connected with manufacturers of machines for technology upgradations.
KHS was another company representing total solutions for the liquid technology. Said Ravindra Kanitkar, DGM, Business Development,“We are leaders in offering solutions for filling and packaging. The company offers solutions in PET, Glass and Cans. We manufacture machines as per German designs and have a world –class manufacturing plant in Ahmadabad in Gujarat. We are here to just represent the services of the company which already caters to big names like Coke, PepsiCo and foreign names like Heinken, Karls Berg and Sab. Through drinktec we want to increase our customer base to the Indian clients and discuss new ideas with our existing customers.”
The locale of the event really did not seem to matter to this company as according to it, the means of communication in this age were able to overcome all barriers.
Rakesh Yada from German-based vacuum Packaging and Tipper Tie represented its vacuum packaging machinery in India. However, Rakesh was disappointed with the fact that after the wash-out of the last event, the visitors’ rush did not seem to be too encouraging this year.
Overall though, the event received much appreciation from the exhibitors both foreign and Indian who thought the opportunity of showcasing the products could easily be leveraged for growing business volume through the exhibitions.
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