West Africa PlastPrintPack will be held from 8 to 10 October in Côte d’Ivoire, a country experiencing rapid growth across the entire food processing and transformation industry.
A total of 11 technology manufacturers are participating in the eagerly awaited UCIMA collective at West Africa PlastPrintPack, organised in cooperation with the Italian Trade Agency ITA and Amaplast.
Held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from Tuesday 8 October to Thursday 10 October, the show is the most important event for the sector in West Africa and hosts manufacturers of technologies for the entire supply chain, including food processing, printing and converting, packaging, bottling and wrapping.
The show offers Italian companies an important opportunity to consolidate existing business relations with operators in a rapidly developing region or simply to enter a new market with very interesting prospects. The companies taking part in the collective are Besser Vacuum, Cusinato Giovanni, Duetti Packaging, Ecopack, Miele, Sacmi, Selematic, Simex, Sodimax, Sud Capsule and Telm.
Imports of packaging technology to Côte d’Ivoire increased by 50% in two years, reaching €36 million in 2022. The same year, the West African region as a whole imported machinery worth €392 million following average annual growth of 7.2% since 2016.
Ivorian imports of plastic and rubber machinery grew from €39 million to €53 million between 2019 and 2023, making the country the second largest investor in West Africa after Nigeria. Across the region as a whole, imports in the sector have almost doubled in the last decade from €183 million in 2014 to €347 million in 2023, corresponding to an average growth of 6.6% per year. The exhibition marks the first autumn stop on the We MakePackaging world tour, the large-scale project to promote Italian-made products launched by Ucima in 2023.