Packaging sector needs more investments

MANILA, Philippines - Exporting firms are urged to invest in packaging and testing facilities to become more competitive in the world market and to grow their shipments, industry officials said.

“If you want to export successfully, you need to invest in the right materials and facilities. When you make sure investment is a priority, you avoid losses,” Angel Bunag, president of Systemat-PackEDGE said in a press briefing yesterday.

He said that by investing in the right materials and testing facilities, the exporter could determine if the packaging material used can preserve the quality of the product for export and if it would be able to withstand the travel period.

He said investing in the right material for packaging would also allow the firm to grow their exports since packaging does a lot to the quality and presentation of the product to the consumer.

For his part, Lejo Brana, board member and senior consultant at the Central Philippine University School of Packaging Engineering in Iloilo City said in the same event that to determine the right packaging for a product, exporters have to know the recipients first.

“Exporting companies must possess the quality of understanding the global perspective. They have to look at who will be receiving their products,” he said.

“They also need to test their packages and make sure it does what it ought to do,” he said further.

For his part, Packaging Institute of the Philippines president Joseph Ross Jocson, said in the same event that while micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) may find it difficult to invest in packaging testing facilities, there are institutions these firms could go to in order to make the necessary investments.

He said these firms could either borrow from banks which have lending facilities for the MSME sector or go to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), which also offers assistance on packaging.

Bunag said that while exporters need to invest in the right packaging materials and in testing facilities, the government should also come up with a roadmap for export packaging in order to make the country’s exports more competitive and to capture more markets overseas.

He said the roadmap would be endorsed at the GlobalPack 2012 International Packaging Conference and Exhibition to be held on July 26 to 27 in Iloilo City.

Latest innovations and developments in packaging, he said, would likewise be discussed in the conference, which are expected to help boost the local packaging industry and the country’s exports.