Mexico tapping into growing pharmaceutical packaging sector

MEXICO CITY (July 13, 9:50 a.m. ET) -- Sales of bottles and packaging for the Mexican pharmaceutical industry increased 17 percent over the past five years, reaching $150 million in 2009, according to the Packaging Machinery Manufactures Institute of Arlington, Va.

PMMI describes Mexico as Latin America’s largest pharmaceutical market. A trade association of 560 member companies, it organized Expo Pack México, held June 22-25 in Mexico City.

For the first time, the show featured a pharmaceutical pavilion and a conference program geared to that sector.

“To get the pharmaceutical industry to the point where it generates the jobs and economic growth it’s capable of, it’s essential to encourage production, research and technological development and to strengthen business connections that expand opportunities to export products,” said Charles Yuska, PMMI’s president and CEO, in a news release.

PMMI also introduced Expo Pack Verde, a program to promote suppliers’ green solutions and to encourage packaging recycling, reuse and reduction.

According to Yuska, the show attracted 21,400 visitors and 890 exhibiting companies from 20 countries. It included pavilions from Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Spain, Taiwan and the United States, as well as a financing pavilion.

“We are extremely pleased with the results from this year’s event,” Yuska said. The attendees, he adds, were “serious buyers looking for solutions.

Exhibit space grew 15 percent, to 169,000 square feet, since the last show.

Mexico’s packaging association (AMEE, standing for the Asociación Mexicana de Envase y Embalaje), included Expo Pack México and sister exhibition Procesa in its Packaging Week, which is a series of conferences and similar events.

“Based on recent data from AMEE, it looks like the Mexican packaging industry could grow 3 percent in 2010,” Yuska said, adding that positive economic data also indicates the industry is “heading in the right direction.”

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