Currently, China is promoting its Made in China 2025 strategy – essentially the Chinese version of Industry 4.0, which aims to automate intelligent manufacturing in the future, allow for components and machines to communicate with each other, and for raw materials, machinery, plants, transportation and distribution to be efficiently integrated. This enables all systems to respond to ever-increasing customer demands and international competition. Whether applied in foods, drinks, medicines, cosmetics, non-food consumer goods, industrial products or in other end industries, the demand for innovative packaging solutions is increasing.
In response to these trends, Shanghai World of Packaging (swop) will introduce, for the first time, the "innovationparc" special zone onsite to highlight innovative packaging machinery and materials from all over the world. Visitors in the food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals sectors will have the perfect opportunity to learn about innovations in their fields while developing new business ties.
Focusing on the food industry, market experts anticipate that by 2021 the sale of packaged food will rise by 19% to reach 121 million tons in China. In addition, the trend towards high-quality and safe food products will contribute to the rise in demand for innovative processed and packaged food products in China. Industry 4.0 will offer the chance to better control the increasingly complex production processes while producing in a more cost efficient manner. Flexibility, individuality and safety will also improve. Many leading food processing companies have pre-registered to visit swop, including Pepsi, Yum!, Godiva, Ferrero, Oishi, Yili, Twinlings. Even famous food processing companies recognize the value of innovation, launching new, innovative products ever faster in order to lead in an increasingly competitive environment, both nationally and internationally.
China is the second largest pharmaceutical market in the world, forecasted to grow from $108 billion in 2015 to $167 billion by 2020, representing an annual growth rate of 9.1 percent. Total public and private healthcare expenditure reached $640 billion in 2015 and is expected to almost double to $1.1 trillion by 2020, as the Chinese government rapidly expands universal insurance coverage. Industry 4.0 will enhance the competitiveness of pharmaceutical companies. GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Fresenius KABI, Takeda, INFINITUS, Walgreens Boots Alliance and other well-known pharmaceutical companies have pre-registered to visit swop to search for innovative pharmaceutical processing and packaging technologies.
As a member of interpack alliance, swop will not only provide a “supply and demand” platform for the packaging market, but most importantly will give all industry professionals insights into future packaging trends, through a series of special zones including “innovationparc”, “SAVE FOOD” and “FMCG Future Zone”. An estimated 1,000 exhibitors and 30,000 visitors will attend swop, the leading processing and packaging show in China and Asian region, from November 7-10 in Shanghai.
Exhibition booths are almost sold out. If you are interested in being part of innovation parc, please apply at www.swop-online.com soon. swop is also present on facebook at Facebook.com/swop.sh providing exhibition updates and announcements.
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