Showcasing capabilities of country's packaging industry:

Lankapack in May 2012

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

Showcasing the capabilities of the country's packaging industry, Lankapack 2012 exhibition will be held from May 25 to 27, 2012 in Colombo.

"This is the biggest international packaging exhibition in Sri Lanka and is an ideal platform to showcase the capabilities of the country while taking the industry forward. As exhibitions the world over provide a boom to related industries our packaging industry could benefit from the exhibition, Packaging Consultant and Packaging Development Centre Chairman Dharmatilake Ratnayake told Daily News Business.

The exhibition will provide an opportunity to focus on major developments in the global packaging industry. The sectoral growth could be fuelled by latest technology, material and machinery where packaging process is being transformed to semi-auto and auto from a process of manual operation, he said.

The packaging industry has a lot to gain and entry level innovation plays a keyrole in its upward movement. The packaging industry worldwide is regarded as the barometer to measure other industry standards. The industry reflects the trend of urbanization of a country. The prime focus of packaging should be the level of performance, cost, hygiene and value. It creates perception and should concentrate on reducing post-consumer packaging waste.

The exhibition is a great opportunity to all stakeholders as a technological platform for solutions and capabilities. We need to raise the bar in the industry while developing it through public policy framework.

The way forward for the industry is to modify and improve the performance of the product system.

The extension of the concept of producer responsibility on production towards total life cycle of the package and the provision of only the certified packaging solutions to the end users will have far reaching benefits, Ratnayake said.