Preparations are in full swing for the region’s leading packaging expo, Gulf Pack, which promises to showcase every kind of packaging from flexible to metal and PET to enclosures and the associated machinery, while also presenting a series of free-to-attend seminars where valuable insights will be provided into the latest trends in the field.

The event takes place from December 11 to 14 at Dubai’s Airport Expo.
More than 300 exhibiting companies will be at the show, encouraged by the region’s fast-growing packaging industry, tremendous growth in the production of food, dairy and beverage products and increased manufacturing activity in various sectors with a related demand for packaging. 
One of the most eagerly anticipated aspects of this year’s show will be a presentation by IMES, a leading firm of management consultants, on the dynamics of the consumer packaging market in the UAE. The findings will offer visitors and exhibitors at the show unique information about the market, future trends and potential opportunities.
“The survey is something Gulf Pack is very proud to have led and reflects on the effort and investment made by us in establishing the link with them and their Asian counter-parts, the Asian Packaging Federation (APF),” said Sharla Hancock, Gulf Pack’s project manager
Globally, according to statistics from the World Packaging Organisation, (WPO), the industry is estimated to be worth over $485 billion, with modest growth of around 4 per cent. The survey is poised to underscore the fact that the UAE, and the region as a whole, is one of the fastest growing markets in the world with predicted double-digit growth in a number of categories, well above the mature European and US markets. Testament to this comes from one of the event’s major exhibitors, Crown.  According to Francois Querrioux, Crown’s Dubai-based general manager, “The region is one of the fastest growing for our company, and through recent investments in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Tunisia we have doubled our business in the last three years to meet the continuing market growth.”
The research initiative is seen as a catalyst for the formation of the Packaging Association, a UAE-based industry group being established by both international and local packaging organisations. This has the endorsement of the WPO and follows on from the visits made by the WPO to the UAE in recent years. Notably, Gulf Pack initiated the dialogue with their secretary general, Dr Carl Olsmats, in the spring of 2004.
The free-to-attend seminar programme is led by global liquid food packaging giant Tetra Pak. Specialist guest speakers will be flown in for the event and interested delegates have to register in advance on the Gulf Pack website www.gulfpack.info as numbers are limited.
According to Hancock, the regional boom in the retail sector has stimulated a lot of interest from stores and supermarkets in Gulf Pack. “With more and more mega-malls and hypermarkets opening their doors throughout the Gulf, our event offers a number of unique solutions for their needs,” she said.
With only weeks to go before the next edition of Gulf Pack, the organisers encourage early pre-registration to avoid queues. The show is open daily from 11am till 8 pm and is taking place in the East Hall of Airport Expo.