Fira de Barcelona and the Palco Business Group are holding the First PACGRAF Cuba tradeshow

HAVANA, Jan. 27th Fira de Barcelona and the Palco Business Group are holding the First PACGRAF Cubatradeshow at the Havana Pabexpo venue from 7 to 9 February.

Fifty companies from ten countries in Europe and North and South America are participating in this monographic packaging and printing trade show. Spain, with 19 exhibitors, is contributing the most companies to this new fair, which will showcase the business opportunities in packaging and printing that are opening up on the island.

The Cuban government considers the packaging sector to be strategic for ensuring economic development and for strengthening the biopharmaceutical and food industries in particular, as well as exports.
In this regard, it is promoting policies and investments to technologically update local packaging manufacturing industries in order to also meet growing domestic demand for packaging elements, in a country in which a large percentage of products are still sold in bulk.

For Fira de Barcelona’s International Business Director, Ricard Zapatero, ‘holding PACGRAF Cuba in the current situation opens up direct access to the island’s market for many Spanish and foreign companies specialised in machinery and raw materials for the manufacture and printing of packaging’.

Technology, knowledge and business rounds

The fifty companies participating in this first edition of the show hail from Spain, Cuba, Germany, France, Panama, Italy, USA, Colombia, Poland and Peru.

PACGRAF Cuba aims to support these companies, generate new business opportunities and provide opportunities to contact with major buyers, retailers, distributors, Cuban Government Ministries and key market investors from the island and other Caribbean countries.

Almost 70% of exhibitors at PACGRAF Cuba are manufacturers and distributors of machinery, equipment, process technologies and accessories for the manufacture of packaging and for printing different media. Some 18% are part of the raw materials and materials segment, with the remaining percentage made up of pre-printing, printing and telecommunications service companies as well as Cuban government agencies and institutions responsible for the country’s imports and exports.

In addition, the activities at the tradeshow will include The Investment Forum, with conferences presenting the Cuban government’s main packaging policy measures and lines of action, opportunities for trade and investment in the packaging and printing industries, and the role of design in packaging manufacture.

These presentations, focused on the current situation facing these industries as well as the new arrangements for promoting foreign investment in the island, will be given by representatives from the Cuban Ministry of Industry and state-owned enterprises such as the Light Industry Business Group (GEMPIL) and the Cuban National Office for Design (ONDI), among others.

Business Rounds, meetings scheduled by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce, will also be held between exhibitors, representatives from Cuban agencies and international professionals. These meetings are aimed at finding customers, distributors, business partners and suppliers on the island. PACGRAF Cuba is expecting over 2,000 visitors.