Seven companies coordinated by Ucima and ITA are taking part in the exhibition Propak East Africa, which will continue until 1 March
Propak East Africa, one of the most important exhibitions of processing and packaging technology in East Africa, is currently being held in the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi.
Ucima (Italian Packaging Machinery Manufacturers’ Association) and the Italian Trade Agency ITA are once again coordinating the participation of Italian companies in a country pavilion. Seven major Italian companies are taking part in the show: Galdi (Treviso), Goglio (Varese), MG2 (Bologna), R. Bardi (Parma), Siad Macchine Impianti (Bergamo), SMI (Bergamo) and Tropical Food Machinery (Parma).
East Africa as a whole (Burundi, Comoros, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) imported machinery worth a total of 182.7 million euros in 2016, 6.6% down on 2015. Italy is the second largest exporter to the region with a market share of 18.6% behind Germany and ahead of China.
In the first three quarters of 2017 the region saw 13% growth in total imports of packaging machinery to 147.6 million euros. Analyzing the individual countries that make up the region, the top market of destination for packaging machinery is Kenya with a 30.5% share (55.7 million euros in 2016, up 42.4% on 2015), followed by Ethiopia (34.8 million euros, up 66.3% on 2015) and Tanzania (22.6 million euros, down 19.3% on 2015).
In the first three quarters of 2017, Kenya and Tanzania both saw further acceleration with respect to the same period in 2016 (+27.9% and +38.6% respectively), while Ethiopia experienced a slowdown (-33.4%).
