It’s time for Indian printers to focus on packaging, says Kamal Chopra

Over the years, the exhibition remains in close cooperation with partners, especially maintaining long-term strategic cooperation with AIFMP, which is devoted to promoting technology and academic exchanges between China and India, the organisers added.

Reed Exhibitions will host SinoCorrugated South, SinoFoldingCarton, SinoFlexoGraphy and China Packaging Container at the GD Modern Exhibition Center in Houjie Town, Dongguan, from 14 to 16 April 2016. Together, the shows work to serve the paper packaging industry chain and provide the necessary networking platform among countries and experts.

“In addition to being thankful for the support from the association management in every session, Reed Exhibitions would like to extend a special gratitude to Kamal Chopra, who plays an important role between China and India in packaging and printing industries,” said Sinsia Xing, marketing manager, Reed Exhibitions.

India has more than 250,000 large and small printing enterprises with an investment of more than USD two billion dollars, and the annual printing industry revenue growth rate is far greater than the overall GDP growth. Xing said the Indian printing market capacity would exceed USD 5.8 billion (Rs 374 billion). Currently, as the second largest printing market in Asia, India has been continuously improving their production and management level to adapt to future development.

Xing said as one of the well-known leaders of the India printing industry, Chopra plays a decisive role between China and India. “Reed Exhibitions appreciates that he organises regular printers’ visits to China. We are pleased to provide the Indian experts with the opportunity to visit printing factories in China and to participate in technical forums,” Xing said.

This year too, Xing said, Chopra will lead a delegation of Indian printers to the show in April.

Need for more packaging printers in India
On his part, Chopra reiterated the fact that scope of packaging is increasing by the day. “Tomorrow is about packaging printing. As we all know, Drupa is the biggest show in the world for the printing industry. However, if we look for packaging or print packaging, SinoCorrugated is the largest and best-informed show. I have seen that in India, only about 20% printers are exclusively packaging printers, whereas as per the trend, the packaging is growing more than double the growth of printing in India. If we talk about international scenarios, printing is declining whereas packaging is growing. Taking these things into consideration, we decided to support the SinoCorrugated show,” Chopra said.

Chopra believes as the packaging sector grows, there is a need for more packaging printers in India.

With the dependency ratio of 6%, India is now the youngest country of the world, and according to WHO studies, this situation will remain so beyond 2050. This and the new initiatives from the government will make international players look at India as a potential market.

With 250,000 printing presses, India is a country with largest number of presses (Europe 1.18 lakh; China 1.13 lakh; the US 50,000; Japan 45,000; Korea 42,000 and Australia 40,000). Again, with approximately 25 lakh people in employment, the industry is the world’s second largest employer of manpower, after China, which employs 30.25 lakh people. In the rest of the world, employment and the number of printing companies are decreasing by 6%, whereas in India, it is progressing by 5.2% cent annually.

Chopra said, with a little motivation, India can become the ‘factory of the world’, so far as packaging printing is concerned. “It is, therefore, my vision to develop the Indian printer so as to cope with the increasing international packaging needs. I wish that more and more printers would move towards packaging printing. On the other hand, with the inclusion of printed electronics, 3D printing, packaging printing is changing. It is, therefore, necessary that the Indian printers should learn about modern developments for smart packaging,” he said.

Thus, Chopra, as part of AIFMP, is planning visits to not only quality packaging exhibitions but also is arranging discussions with leading packaging printers of the world. 

Talking about SinoCorrugated, Chopra said it is the best show to learn about the latest in packaging. “During this show, with the support from the organisers, we are going to hold a meeting of interested Indian printers with Chinese entrepreneurs interested in investing in Indian packaging industry. On my request, it is for the first time that a visit to some Chinese packaging companies is being organised, so that Indian printers can learn the system of management and production, especially how China can produce economically than Indian printers,” Chopra concluded.