Colombo’s Pro Food/Pro Pack transforms into leading South Asian expo

Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen (fourth from left) joined by Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage (third from left), Deputy German Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Michael Dohmen (fifth from left) and National Agri Business Council Chairman Rizvi Zaheed (far left) inspect a Polish biscuit brand made from grains at the 15th Pro Food/Pro Pack Agri Biz event launch at the BMICH yesterday - see also page 5

Sri Lanka’s national food and packaging expo, Pro Food/Pro Pack, has in a short span of 15 years grown to become one of the largest South Asian expos of its kind.

“As we launch the 15th exhibition in the Pro Food/Pro Pack series, we can be satisfied that this has become one of the largest food, beverages, packaging and agri-business fairs in South Asia,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen yesterday, addressing the launch event of the 15th Pro Food/Pro Pack exhibition series by the Ministry with the Sri Lanka Food Processors Association (SLFPA) at the BMICH. 

The international processed food, beverage, packaging, and agricultural exhibition named ‘Pro Food/Pro Pack Agri Biz’ was originally commenced by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in 2001 as Pro Food/Pro Pack. This year’s event features 280 local and foreign exhibitors with 300 stalls with more than 100 foreign delegates coming from India, China, Holland, and Poland, along with an industry delegation from Qatar. 

Also present at the launch were Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage, Deputy German Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Michael Dohmen, Sri Lanka Food Processors Association President Maliek De Alwis and National Agri Business Council Chairman Rizvi Zaheed.

Pro Food/Pro Pack is also a one stop shop for business, trade and a networking platform for these sectors, said Bathiudeen, adding that there had been much progress in the processed food sector by way of improvements in technology, packaging, product development and marketing since the launch of this series in 2001 by the Ministry and that local and overseas participation had been significantly improving.

“I am pleased to say that the Ministry has been actively promoting the food and packaging sector. The reason is that there is a great number of micro and SME enterprises active in this industry. In fact we believe that more than 40% of our SMEs are in the food processing sector. This sector is therefore highly significant in our planning. The Ministry has allocated more than Rs. 60 million for 2017 in a number of projects for this sector,” he noted.

Among the proposed projects are skills development for food and packaging industries, marketing promotion program for processed food industries, green value addition for existing food industries in Sri Lanka, and more importantly introduction of an accredited food laboratory by IDB next year at a cost of Rs. 35 million. 

“We are looking to launch the IDB Lab in 2017 and the new lab can perform many well-known processed food tests such as microbiology shelf life and salmonella. These tests are also important to obtain SLS certifications for processed foods going to the stores. This lab is expected to perform at least 500 processed food tests per month. What is more important is that the services of this lab are made available at very low costs.

“With IDB we are also currently conducting a pilot project to upgrade Sri Lankan SME food processors to enhance their food manufacturing technology and international standards and also to move them one step above form their current SME status. That is for example upgrading small enterprises to become medium size and medium enterprises to become large scales.” 

A GIZ-sponsored special attraction ‘Northern Kitchen’ has been added to this year’s Pro Food/Pro Pack to showcase 30 northern SME food producers to the visiting global audience.