Exhibitors at the Agrofood West Africa and the Printplastpack West Africa exhibitions have described Ghana and the rest of West Africa as a market with enormous food and agro-processing opportunities that can benefit the region and businesses abroad.
Some of the 81 exhibitors from 21 countries told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that they had made substantial contacts with partners, suppliers and buyers of their technology and machinery which they would follow up.
Sharing their views on the final day of the three-day agrofood West Africa and the plastprintpack West Africa 2013 exhibitions at the Accra International Conference Centre, exhibitors said they would follow up to ensure that the contacts and partnerships they had landed would yield favourable fruits in the near future.
According to Mr Patrick Ablefoni of Doehler GmbH, a food and beverage flavour and concentrate dealer, efforts were pragmatically being made by stakeholders to develop Ghana into a hub for some big factories in the country, hence their decision to participate in the fair.
At the Serac stand, a company into plastic packaging and coding, the representative described the fair as a positive one, adding, “we have gotten some contacts and most of the people want to go into industry so it is picking up.”
At the stand of DS Smith, an agro-packaging company, the Export and Hybrid Manager, Mario Lencioni, said they came to introduce several products to Ghana and West Africa, as well as build relationships with them.
He said the company produced packages for shipping vegetable, packaging for tobacco and other agro foods; and used the period of the exhibition as an opportunity to introduce a new product, Hybrid, which enables the shipment of liquid consignments packed in paper boxes.
The Hybrid is a new system of liquid packaging designed and developed specifically as a one-trip solution for the efficient and secure bulk shipment of liquids and semi-liquids over a long distance.
Allgaier Process Technology, a company based in Germany which is into the screening and sifting of materials in the agricultural industry, explained to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that the company decided to be part of the fair to test the pulse of the market, as well as scout for distributors to establish its local presence.
The representatives at the stand said they were looking for partners in Africa and Ghana for that matter, and have already started talking with several potential distributors right at the fair.
The 3-day fair held in Accra brought together over 80 exhibitors from different countries in the agro food industry.
Some of the products on display included processors, machines, equipment and samples of products brought in by the exhibitors.
German company, fairtrade organised the fair which was the first of its kind to be held in Ghana. It featured industry players from other parts of the world with expertise in agriculture, food and beverages. The show was held alongside the first ever Plastprintpack West Africa Exhibition which is on plastics, printing and packaging technology.