MANILA, June 29 (PNA) – The Philippines’ P500-billion packaging industry needs lots of improvement, but as global markets now look on emerging economies and as the country’s manufacturing sector resurges, the industry can expect higher revenues.
Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Balik-Scientist Dr. Lejo Brana, who is also the founder of the Central Philippine Universrity (CPU) Packaging Center in Iloilo, in a briefing, said the country lacks policy against packaging damage unlike in the US wherein the rate should not exceed one percent of the total volume.
He stressed that improvement in the packaging of any good is one of the key factors for the business to further increase.
He cited that “cost of damage is cumulative,” thus, ensuring that items efficiently packed will result to savings for the business.
“To reduce cost, reduce damage,” he said.
Relatively, Systemat-PackEDGE’s Lito Bunag said the “bagsakan”, a specific area of a market where all the goods from the provinces are being unloaded, system in the Philippines is one of the example where efficient packaging plays.
He said goods delivered in these unloading areas are not all packed properly, thus, some items were deemed as additional expenses.
The Philippines is hosting the GlobalPack 2012 in Iloilo from July 26-27. Bunag said the event will have a big impact on the domestic packaging industry because it will showcase best practices worldwide.
Aside from Brana, who has worked for multinational companies in the US, other speakers in the global event are Herbert Scheuneman, president of Westpack, Inc. and Institute of Packaging Professional (IoPP) fellow; and World Packaging Organization (WPO) president and CEO Thomas Schneider.
Meanwhile, the move to shy away from using plastic bags has not resulted positively to the domestic paper industry as more companies import supplies from Indonesia, among others.
Packaging Institute of