After the great success of plastprintpack West Africa in Abidjan in 2018 and a long Covid-related break, fairtrade and their local Ivorian partners 2A are now coming back to Côte d'Ivoire and Francophone West Africa with plastprintpack West Africa 2023.

plastprintpack West Africa 2023 will take place in conjunction with agrofood West Africa at the brand-new Abidjan Parc des Expositions from 17 to 19 October 2023.

In addition to Côte d'Ivoire, fairtrade in West Africa serves Nigeria with the plastprintpack Nigeria and Ghana with plastprintpack Ghana.

The increasing demand throughout the rather homogenous French-speaking West African market of 110 million inhabitants and the good general economic situation in Côte d'Ivoire continue to offer positive prospects for suppliers of plastprintpack & agrofood technology.   

With the exception of Guinea, all countries use the franc CFA franc, which is linked to the euro. The currency facilitates not only the overseas export of machinery from Europe and Asia to Abidjan, but also the export of food within the French-speaking countries of West Africa. 
 

Excellent pre-conditions for plastprintpack West Africa.

The West African plastprintpack sector provides great chances for doing business

• Plastics technology: West African imports of plastics technology more than doubled over the past few years, from €144 million in 2016 to €311 million in 2021, an average growth of 16.6% annually. Major West African import markets of plastics technology - apart from Nigeria – are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Togo, Guinea and Mali, in this order.
• Printing and paper technology: From €93 million in 2017 to €121 million in 2021: West Africa’s imports of printing and paper processing technology show an annual increase of 6.8% with Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal being the major buyers.
• Last but not least West Africa imported packaging technology at a value of €312 million in 2021, up 5.4% annually from €240 million in 2016. Major West African import markets of packaging technology - apart from Nigeria – are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Togo, in this order.

Bosch seminar & VDMA symposium 

The 5th edition of agrofood & plastprintpack West Africa took place at the Radisson Blu Hotel Abidjan Airport in Abidjan from 20 to 22 November 2018.

80 exhibitors from 17 countries participated, among them many of the world's leading companies in their sector. The exhibitors came from Austria, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkey, United Kingdom and USA.

The remarkable number of 1,461 high quality visitors discussed their investments as 53% of the visitors planned to invest over the next 12 months.

The AMAPLAST & ACIMGA stand was a reference point for West African operators interested in Italian plastics & rubber and printing & converting machines

"Sub-Saharan countries, especially in the Western area of the African continent, represent interesting emerging markets for the Italian plastics and rubber machinery, equipment, moulds as well as printing and converting machines. Though the relevant exports value is still low, compared to other traditional destinations, prospects are quite good. This is the reason why AMAPLAST and ACIMGA have been monitoring these regions, first of all by attending sector exhibitions. 

The AMAPLAST and ACIMGA stand at plastprintpack West Africa 2018 was a reference point for local operators interested in collecting information on the Italian plastics and rubber, printing and converting machinery industry, which is a global leader, especially in light of important capabilities such as: products’ thickness reduction, energy saving, Industry 4.0 and recycling solutions." (Mr Mario Maggiani - General Manager - AMAPLAST)

50 speakers from around the globe enriched the 3-day conference program including the Bosch seminar & the VDMA symposium.

• Ministry of Commerce, Industry and SME Promotion of Côte d‘Ivoire

• Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Côte d‘Ivoire

• Embassies of Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Türkiye