Africa was an important, continuously growing market, presenting opportunities to attract new potential customers, said Italian packaging machine manufacturer Corazza area sales manager for West and North Africa Paolo Valmori.

He told Engineering News Online on Monday at Africa’s largest food and beverage trade show, Africa’s Big Seven (AB7), that the consumption of stock cubes, or bouillon cubes, was particularly high in West Africa, where hundreds of tons a day was consumed.

Valmori explained that Corazza, which manufactured machinery for the packaging of bouillon cubes, processed cheese, butter, margarine and yeast, was in search of agents in Africa, but added that “this is not easy”, making distribution a challenge.

The company currently had existing clients in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire and South Africa, with new potential projects in Senegal and Togo.

Corazza, part of IMA Group, was part of the Made in Italy collective exhibiting until Tuesday at the thirteenth AB7 at the Gallagher Convention Centre, in Johannesburg.

Speaking at the Italian pavilion workshop on Monday was University of Parma Professor Andrea Lorenzi of the Interdepartmental Centre for Packaging, who discussed innovative coatings for packaging materials.

Lorenzi was followed by Corazza sales director Andrea Pellengrini, who spoke on the increasing safety and sustainability in the packaging of processed cheese and bouillon cubes in line with the new expectations of the food industry.

“More and more customers are asking us mainly to use fully recyclable packaging material, reduce packing materials, [lower] the consumption of machines, [shrink] the footprint of machinery, [cut] product wastage, decrease maintenance costs and increase product shelf life and machine cleanability,” he advised, continuing to discuss the company’s advancements in this regard. 

Pellengrini said sustainability was an ongoing process and that Corazza was still working on general improvement and major developments in conjunction with its customers, and hoped to be back at AB7 next year to showcase these.

Speaking at the Italian pavilion on Tuesday on new instruments to enhance safety, sustainability and efficiency in the dairy industry would be Galdi sales director Matteo Pozzobon, Marcella Pedroni of Fiere di Parma, organiser of the Cibustec show, and the South African Milk Producers Organisation MD Alwyn Kraamwinkel.

Koelnmesse Italy, organiser of the Anuga FoodTec show, and Fiere di Parma were driven to stage the Italian pavilion at this year’s AB7, as Southern Africa was seen as a market with “great potential for growth… ready to be challenged”.

The Southern African region consisted of 14 countries with a population of more than 150-million.

“These nations enjoy an active free-trade agreement with [the] Southern African Development Community. It is the best structured internal trade organisation in Africa, representing 20% of the continent’s population and 75% of its gross domestic product,” noted the collective.

AB7 combined seven sector shows dedicated to the food and beverage supply chain, from harvest produce and raw materials to manufacturing, processing and packaging machinery, retail equipment, hospitality and finished products.

AB7 coincided with an Italian business delegation currently being hosted by the Department of Trade and Industry until Wednesday.