The Packaging Committee of the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) in Chile agreed on the need to work with various organizations and companies to create a sustainability plan in the country. The idea is to allow the food packaging industry to become as environmentally-friendly as possible, mainly when it comes to fruit and to the use of plastics and cardboard, says Gabriel Fonzo, of Integrity Ultrapac and chairman of said committee.
“We seek, for example, for labels to be simpler, without multiple polymers being used in them, as this is a problem. We will have a manual of good practices in packaging, suggesting some minimum standards for all Chilean export fruit. We are working separately on cardboard and plastic and plan to later bring all the information together in a single manual, which is expected to be ready at the end of the year or beginning of the next,” said the executive.
Furthermore, two additional resolutions were taken in the last meeting of said committee: 1. Documenting the data on packaging trends, as this can help redirect the efforts of the Chilean fruit industry in its search for greater cost efficiency, and 2. Pursuing the organization of an annual seminar specialized in the subject from 2020.
Mariana Soto (Cenem, venue of the meeting), Pablo Sufán (Envases Impresos), Andrés Rodríguez (PMA Chile), Gabriel Alarcón (Bagno), Andrés Hoppe (Tesco), Hans Leibbrandt (Monfrut) and María Eugenia Stanley (Walmart), Sergio Maureira (Asoex) and Ignacio Page (Tottus) all attended the meeting.
Globally, as in Chile, PMA has shown that packaging is one of the most relevant issues, having recently unveiled a study that shows how global consumers have changed the way they see packaging. Online shopping (eCommerce), sustainability demands and convenience are driving innovations which did not seem possible just a few years ago.
More information: www.pma.com