Packaging needs testing, R&D laboratory - Centre Director

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The country's $ 1.5 billion packaging industry will focus on value addition and competitiveness for better product presentation, Packaging Development Centre Director J. D. Amarasooriya told Daily News Business.

"The packaging industry in Sri Lanka is fast growing and has become important in the global business arena where quality and cost is key to industry development. It is essential that technological development been introduced to the industry for better output," he said.

Packaging represents 3% of the country's GDP. Annual growth of certain packaging sectors reach 10% while the average growth stands as 6 percent. Most of the raw materials and conversion machinery are imported at high cost. This has negative impact on the growth of the industry," he said. An in depth analysis on the cost, quality and reliability and service competitiveness of the industry is yet to be conducted. Lack of package testing and reliability monitoring, HR training infrastructure, controlled by the industry has been an inadequacy. Graphic quality of many a packaging form is highly competitive.

The industry faces many challenges such as importation of low cost packaging material, growing environmental pressure for sustainable packaging solutions, probable surge in the demand for new package designs.

The industry progress is also hampered due to high cost of resource, new technologies being developed by overseas competitors and need for infrastructure for the re-processing of post consumer packaging. Among the measures needed to develop the industry are reduction of cost of capital and energy, uplift of factor conditions such as human, material, knowledge and capital resources and installation of in-house quality assurance systems and central package testing laboratories, controlled by the industry.

One of the biggest inputs needed by the industry is to have a central package testing and research and development laboratory controlled by the industry and supported by the State.

The way forward for the local packaging industry is to achieve better resource productivity through the revision of existing package designs after supply chain audits. It should work towards sustainable packaging systems and be involved directly in sustainability.