Demand for products in the packaging and processing of food has been growing steadily at 5 to 6 per cent in the region comprising the GCC area and Yemen, says a Tetra Pak official.

Riccardo Castagnetti of the company’s marketing department says the demand estimate is in line with growth in UHT milk, juice and nectars, still drinks and tomato paste, categories where Tetra Pak enjoys a presence.

Tetra Pak started operations in the region in the 1970s when it set up a commercial office in Saudi Arabia. In the late 1990s it established a carton converting factory in Jeddah, adding a straw manufacturing facility a few years later. The Jeddah plant produces approximately 8.2 billion cartons annually, 20 per cent of which is exported. Tetra Pak supplies most of the packaging material for the GCC market from Jeddah and exports to customers in 24 other countries in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

“Tetra Pak has capacity available to cover markets for several years to come and there are no plans to expand as of yet. There are other Tetra Pak factories which can supply to the region should there be any unexpected demand,” says Castagnetti.

In January 2007, Tetra Pak Arabia was formed to cover countries in the GCC area and Yemen. The company has sales and technical offices in Jeddah, Riyadh, Dubai, Kuwait City and Sanaa.

As well as carton packages, the company supplies equipment and service products to markets and helps its clients to conduct efficient operations at their plants.  “An example of our commitment to quality and performance is the Operational Cost Reduction (OCR) programme which optimises efficiency through effective line management and is already implemented by a number of customers in the region,” says Castagnetti.

Twenty per cent of cartons made at the Jeddah factory are exported

“Saudi Arabia represents around two thirds of Tetra Pak Arabia business while the fastest growing markets are Kuwait and Yemen. Tetra Pak Arabia has strong business relationships with the most important food producers of the region, and its customer base in the packaging and processing industry covers the whole region,” the official says.

The Jeddah plant has 42 active customers in the region. The company has strong ties with leading Saudi juice, nectars and still drinks (JNSD) firms Al Rabie and Binzagar Coro among others  and milk producers including Sadafco and Nada. Main customers outside Saudi Arabia are Lacnor in the UAE, KDD in Kuwait and Yemen Dairy in Yemen.

“Tetra Pak pioneered carton packaging for liquid food in the 1950s in Sweden and is the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company today. Working closely with our customers and supplier, we provide safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people around the word,” says Castagnetti.

While the region offered great opportunities for growth with a young population and a widening middle class, there are several challenges to Tera Pak’s business.

One is alternative packaging systems such as plastic that appeal to consumers but, according to Castagnetti, offer a generally lower level of protection for the product than carton packaging.

The official points to what he says are a lack of environmental awareness and specific legislation that could drive consumer preference towards greener packaging systems in terms of the carbon footprint.

Tetra Pak Saudi Arabia has strong ties with leading juice, nectars and still drinks producers

With prices levels set for leading products, customers are prevented from investing in new packaging and adding functionality for final consumers, says Castagnetti.

Tetra Pak has commercial offices and R&D centres in more than 70 countries and serves customers in 170, offering cutting-edge packaging solutions for food products, safe and efficient packaging and processing equipment as well as technical support and project management.

INNOVATIONS
Tetra Pak’s global headquarters recently unveiled four new features for its carton packaging portfolio at Anuga FoodTec aimed at strengthening the environmental attributes of several of its leading products. They are: a separable top for the Tetra Evero Aseptic and three renewable PE caps made from plant-based sources.

Tetra Pak was the first company in the global carton packaging industry to use PE caps, a development that materialised from its partnership with Braskem, Brazil’s largest petrochemical company. The PE caps are made from sugar cane derivatives.

Following the successful launch of the Tetra Evero Aseptic, the world’s first aseptic carton bottle for white milk, Tera Pak pioneered another industry first by developing the additional functionality of a separable top. This top has a perforation in the cardboard which allows the separating of a PE top from the carton sleeve, delivering improved environmental characteristics by making it easy for consumers to separate the top and carton sleeve and recycle them separately.

Other recent product innovations announced by the packaging giant and attracting interest in the Gulf region are: 

• Tetra Lactenso Aseptic with OneStep technology. The line incorporates UHT white milk production within a single, high-throughput process. The technology eliminates the need for pasteurisation pre-treatment and intermediate storage of raw milk. In one unbroken step, raw milk is preheated, clarified, separated, standardised and homogenised before undergoing UHT treatment and regenerative cooling. It is then transferred to two aseptic buffer tanks. The process time is a few hours.

• The Tetra Gemina Aseptic Crystal and Leaf Shapes combine strong visual appeal with the consumer functionality of the Tetra Gemina Aseptic Square Shape. The original Tetra Gemina Aseptic Square is renowned for two qualities: its top, which gives the package a unique appearance, and the geometry of the slanted top which achieves the best possible product flow.

• The Tetra Rex Pearl is a brand new package designed for premium milk and juice. It delivers improved branding possibilities and a differentiated offer for retailers. Due for launch in Q1 2013, Tetra Rex Pearl moves away from the faceted shapes traditionally associated with cartons to a more curvaceous simplistic shape. The curved, droplet shaped key line creates an impactful side profile and defines the overall new look. In addition, the absence of a front horizontal crease line creates one large front panel which not only opens up new branding possibilities but also affords space for a large, premium-looking closure.