Investment in Russian packaging industry said to be on the rise again

The 20th edition of UPAKOVKA/UPAK ITALIA, a leading Russian trade fair for packaging machinery, packaging production and packaging materials, recently took place in Moscow from January 24-27. Messe Düsseldorf, its Russian subsidiary OOO Messe Düsseldorf Moscow and Centrexpo were jointly responsible for the show's organization.

Dr Guido Corbella, CEO of Centrexpo, is quoted as saying in the show's final report that Russia and the entire GUS is a market which Italian companies still view as very promising, stressing that this is why the number of Italian exhibitors has remained stable despite the fact that they we did not receive any government support for the first time, following the temporary dissolution of the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade.

"This clearly goes to show how important the Russian market is for Italian companies, and will continue to be - many of the companies have already expressed their interest in exhibiting at UPAKOVKA/UPAK ITALIA again in 2013. We particularly anticipate growth in the area of converting and packaging printing, where we see great opportunities in the future," says Dr Corbella.

The largest exhibitor contingents were from Russia, Germany and Italy, with over 300 exhibitors from 22 different countries represented. Vera Fritsche from the Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Association, a division of VDMA, adds, "With Russia joining the WTO, Russian manufacturers face stronger competition. In order to be able to withstand this competition and, over and above that, open new export markets, they need to invest in production technology and capacity."

According to him, following a drop in demand as a result of the global financial and economic crisis, business has recovered significantly: in the first 11 months of 2011, German manufacturers exported packaging machines worth some 266 million euros to Russia, an increase of 28% compared with the same period in the previous year, as well as confectionary machines worth 51 million euros, an increase of 11%.

Alexander Boiko, President of the National Confederation of Packagers of Russia NKPak, is said to expect that growth prospects for the packaging industry in Russia will remain buoyant.

"The trend has definitely been reversed since the recent crisis, during which cutbacks were also made when it came to packaging. The sector is once again seeing growth of around 6% per annum, and packaging is becoming more sophisticated again. Plastics have now overtaken cardboard packaging and film packaging is still on the increase, too," he explains.

The next UPAKOVKA/UPAK ITALIA is scheduled to take place from January 29 to February 1, 2013 in Moscow and will once again be held in parallel with INTERPLASTICA. The spotlight at next year's fair will be on the finishing of packaging materials and packaging, packaging manufacturing technologies and packaging printing, which also took the limelight this year, as demand in this segment is growing fast in Russia, not least due to new regulations governing the labeling and identification of products, according to the final report.