swop 2019 ends on a high note

Feb 19, 2020

The leading processing and packaging machinery exhibition in Asia – swop – took place in halls N1-N5 at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre from November 25-28, 2019 for the third time. As a member of the interpack alliance, swop benefits from its international network of exhibitions in the packaging and processing industry. Paving the way for interpack 2020, swop 2019 presented a preview of the show with the latest trends, new ideas and new technologies on display. With an exhibition area of more than 60,000 square meters, 701 exhibitors attracted more than 25,000 domestic and international professional visitors.

Shanghai World of Packaging (swop) 2019 continued to position itself as a comprehensive business platform for the entire supply chain of the packaging industry, covering categories including the production and processing of packaging materials, primary packaging, secondary packaging as well as packaging printing, integrating the entire packaging industry chain into a one-stop procurement platform. Swop targets eight key industries: food, beverages, pharma, cosmetics, confectionery, bakery, non-food and industrial goods. The exhibition attracted a large number of exhibitors from 13 different countries and regions, including China, Germany, France, Sweden, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan Region to exhibit their cutting-edge technologies and innovative products in the packaging industry. Pioneers of the processing and packaging industry including Hewlett-Packard, Horauf, Demag, Hangzhou Zhongya, Hualian Machinery, Youngsun Pack, Berry Ace and Beauty Star and many more exhibited at swop 2019. The developing trend of intelligent, integrated, personalized and environmentally friendly packaging manufacturing was fully on display.

FMCG Future Zone was a highlight
For the third time, swop worked hand in hand with “PKG Family”, who is committed to building the most valuable FMCG supply chain ecosystem and has more than 1,200 FMCG industry members. Together they created the “FMCG Future Zone” in hall N3. This pavilion mainly displayed packaging containers and packaging consumables. The upgraded scale compared with the previous edition saw more than 200 exhibitors occupying more than 10,000 square meters of display area. The participation of the Shaoxing Shangyu District Cosmetic Packaging Industry Association helped to highlight this pavilion. The exhibition aimed to enhance brand competitiveness by presenting high-quality products to packaging application end users and by creating a cross-disciplinary communication platform. While packaging materials and products have become the main focus to end users, the “FMCG Future Zone” was undoubtedly one of the highlights of swop.

Extended Shelve Life and SAVE FOOD
There were also excellent concurrent events during swop 2019, which were inspired by interpack. One of these was “SAVE FOOD”, a pavilion and forum co-organized by The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Messe Düsseldorf (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. On the second day of the exhibition (November 26), the FAO, Shanghai Toppan Co., Ltd., VDMA, AMETEK, MEMCON, Modivik, and winners of the Tsinghua University “Hackathon event“ shared how to extend the shelf life of food with innovative packaging materials and technology to reduce food loss and waste; thereby reducing production costs for enterprises and contributing to environmental protection.

Packaging for Generation Z
swop 2019 also cooperated with SIVAPACK, the prestigious packaging design college of China's packaging design industry – Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts Packaging and Communication Design Development. They jointly organized the “Generation Z, the New Future” SIVAPACK Design Theme Show and “Insight of the New Era International Design Conference”. In this “new era” of brand competition, together with the brand and packaging industry, swop aimed to help enterprises and end-users seize business opportunities with innovative business thinking and consumer insight.

In order to further explore the future development trend of smart packaging and to provide strategic support for the development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the packaging industry, the organizers held a number of large-scale and diverse forums covering food processing, smart packaging, green packaging, packaging design and creativity as well as trendy topics such as e-commerce logistics packaging.

This 2019 edition of swop was supported by nearly 60 domestic and international industry associations from food and daily care to plastic and printing as well as other related industries. More than 200 enterprise groups from eight sectors visited the exhibition with over 10,000 visitors. swop 2021 will be held from November 23-25, 2021 at Shanghai New International Expo Center Halls N1-N5.