On 17–19 September, St. Petersburg hosted the seventh Global Fishery Forum & Seafood Expo Russia. The exhibition brought together 423 companies from 43 regions of Russia and 13 other countries. In our first review of the event, we focus on suppliers of packaging and equipment for its manufacture, since packaging is used both during fishing and initial catch processing, and during production, storage and transportation of finished fish products.
What did the exhibitors demonstrate?
Companies, including Ulma Packaging, Master Upakovki, Saehwa, MP-Technologii, Soyuz-Polymer and Format, once again showcased their products in the packaging section.
A regular exhibition participant, Murmansky Tarny Kombinat, offered its packaging solutions for fish and seafood, including a series of tin cans for canned and preserved foods, corrugated cardboard packaging and sandwich bags for frozen fish and seafood.
The Colimatic THERA 450 thermoformer and the Italian Pack Olympus tray packer sparked the greatest interest among visitors to Monevak’s expo booth.
In the specialized Ship Tech Global exhibition area, Mosstroy-31, Scale Enterprise and Plastmass Grouppresented their offshore and onshore fish processing solutions.
Novaya Liniya, Georg Polymer, Signal-Pack and ILPRA were participated for the first time. ILPRA presented its thermoformers and skin pack machines, describing possible ways to tailor such equipment to customers’ manufacturing needs. G. Mondini was another new, internationally known participant.
Packaging issues are the focus of the business program
In addition to preserving the flavour and health benefits of fish products, packaging can also drive consumption and sales growth. A study by Sber Marketing presented at the roundtable “Russian Fish: Ways to Stimulate Consumption” showed that 13% of Russians would consume more fish and seafood if the packaging contained cooking recipes. This stresses the importance of informative and creative packaging guaranteeing longer product shelf life, boosting brand confidence and gaining new customers.
The Forum participants also brought up packaging issues when discussing the ramp-up of seaweed production and modernization of the logistics infrastructure for the fishery sector, at the consumption roundtable organized by JSC Rosselkhozbank and during other business programme activities.
Advanced packaging systems for temperature-sensitive products were the highlight of the Cold Chain EurasiaInternational Conference. Held for the second time alongside the Forum & Expo, this Conference on unbroken cold chain issues took place on 19 September at the EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre.
To sum up, the exhibition of packaging solutions at Seafood Expo Russia 2024 confirmed that packaging plays a pivotal role in the fishery industry. The choice of packaging helps keep products safe and governs customer perception. The latest technologies showcased at the exhibition both extend the shelf life of fish and seafood and boost their appeal on store shelves.