The representative packaging exhibition for food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics process and packaging, 'Korea Pack 2022 (International Process & Packing Exhibition) and ICPI WEEK 2022 (International Cosmetics Pharmaceutical Industry Week)', opened on the 14th at KINTEX 1 and 2 in Goyang and was held for 4 days.

The exhibition also featured foreign national pavilions. Italy and India introduced their country's leading packaging companies to Korean packaging consumers, distribution and packaging companies at Korea Pack 2022, and a National Pavilion was set up for networking.

UCIMA, Italy's leading packaging and packaging machinery association dispatched 10 company delegations from; △ECOPACK SPA, △DELFIN SRL, △EUROSTAR SRL, △CONCETTI SPA, △GORRERI SRL, △AROL GROUP, △ICA SPA, △CAVANNA SPA, and △eFFeGi SPA.

Among them, "eFFeGi SPA" (hereinafter referred to as 'eFFeGi') was considered as one of the companies that made significant achievements during the exhibition.

Based in Italy, eFFeGi has been a professional manufacturer and supplier of pallets, boxes and cable drums for wood-based logistics since 2001. They are involved with the entire process, starting from the raw material production stage, onto the primary processing of raw materials such as boards and plywood, as well as the final process of manufacturing packaging materials.

They directly operate a total of three factories, mainly in southern Italy, and carry out the above processes, and they are currently generating revenues of 60 to 70 million euros (about 80.8 to 94 billion won) in Europe every year through this business, with 150 employees.

Valerio Ruspino, head of marketing management at eFFeGi, spoke on the opportunity to participate in this exhibition and said, "The reason we are visiting Korea this time is to introduce new products and services," adding, "It is a project called METALOGISTICS designed to compensate for the problems we experienced in the wood packaging business, and it is an IoT service developed in collaboration with Polytechnic University in Turin, Italy."

As he explained, METALOGISTICS is a service that utilizes a logistics tracking device developed in cooperation with the University of Turin. It is used by directly attaching the device to the packaging materials distributed by eFFeGi, and it detects all physical shocks and effects on the package via the built-in sensor. It is a service that detects and recognizes the weight or impact that causes damage, and provides a location tracking function to check the condition of the cargo.

In addition, the 5G (5th generation) communication function transmits and receives data collected by the device in real time, and provides a long battery life that can be used for up to two years on a single full charge. All information and data sensed by these IoT devices are delivered to customers through self-developed software, and real-time monitoring services such as logistics location and status management are provided.

Ruspino said, " METALOGISTICS is a start-up project that has just started and has not posted sales results so far, but we chose Italy, Europe, and Korea as the stage to make its first appearance in the global market."

According to his explanation, despite the recent high overall demand for wooden products such as eFFeGi's packaging in Italy, companies in related fields have difficulty securing, manufacturing, and selling raw materials due to the finite supply of wood. In response, Ruspino said, "As a leading company in the wood-related market, we are very happy and proud to be supplying our innovative service, METALOGISTICS, to the market during a time when market situations are difficult."

In addition, eFFeGi's position is that it continues to make development efforts to provide new products and ideas to the market, including METALOGISTICS, but feels there are great challenges to entering new markets. In fact, several meaningful meetings were held during the exhibition period, and expressed a positive outlook on signing a contract and starting business in Korea as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, KOREA PACK 2022, co-hosted by the Korea Packaging Machinery Association, The Monthly Packaging, and Kyungyon Exhibition Corp, showcased the manufacturing process, packaging equipment, packaging materials and converting of all industries including food, beverage, bakery, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, household goods, and chemical industry, as well as the entire supply chain of logistics, distribution, and automation after packaging all in one place.

It was mainly comprised of; Hall 1 Korea International Materials Handling & Logistics Exhibition (Korea Mat); Halls 2-5 Packaging machinery, materials, eco-friendly packaging, Cosmetic-Pharmaceutical-Bio Process & Technology Exhibition (Cophex), and the International Exhibition for Chemical Processing, Fine & Specialty Chemicals (Korea Chem), and at the same time the ICPI Week (International Cosmetics Pharmaceutical Industry Week) exhibition and conference for pharmaceutical and cosmetic product development was held at KINTEX 2 (Halls 7 and 8), and provided information on related industries to visitors of the packaging exhibition.