Packaging education in Africa: does it affect Australia?

Lagos, Nigeria: the destination conjures up a variety of images. I grew up in South Africa but nothing could have prepared me for the highly populated, super-resourced, bustling West African nation.

A quarter of Africa’s population lives in Nigeria. With an estimated 200 million people, it is the 7th most populous country in the world with 42% of its population 0-14 years of age. It is the world’s 8th largest exporter of petroleum. It is a country of huge extremes and I feel privileged to have been asked to participate recently in a five-day residential training program (RTP) focusing on packaging technology education.

The World Packaging Organisation (WPO) approached the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP) to deliver this week-long training program. Thirty-four students from Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and South Africa attended, all with a strong desire to learn more in the field of the science and technology of packaging.

Attendees at the RTP in Lagos ponder questions of packaging.

The majority of the attendees were graduates, including some with Masters qualifications and two with PhDs. But packaging technology is what they were hungry to learn about - no small wonder when one considers that more than 50% of Africa’s food supply is lost through poor, ineffective or insufficient packaging. All participants keenly absorbed information and their eagerness to improve their knowledge in this field was most evident in their final project presentation on the fifth day.

This West African RTP initiative will be the first of more to come. Already, the African Packaging Organisation (APO) is planning similar programs in 2014 in Accra and another in Lagos, the latter focusing on pharmaceutical packaging. Although this recent RTP covered the entire spectrum of packaging technology, what drove the students and which was evident in their questions was how one can improve packaging and reduce costs. Participants wanted to know what their packaging counterparts were doing in developed countries and how they can improve, particularly the packaging of foodstuffs to reduce wastage.

In this region, much fresh produce is sold on the ‘open markets’ where better knowledge of material selection coupled with more effective storage would greatly reduce the loss of fresh fruit and vegetables. Subsistence farming is the order of the day in Nigeria where the farmer brings a few baskets of produce to the market and transfers the contents to another basket belonging to the open market vendor. Fresh produce is exposed to the elements during display and sale, resulting in a very limited shelf life.

34 students from around Africa attended the week-long RTP.

There is significant evidence of informal packaging happening throughout Africa. This is where vendors buy in bulk and repack into small pack sizes for ‘open market’ sales, which better suits the consumer owing to low income and poor storage facilities at home. Affordability also drives daily supply of household hygiene items such as toothpaste, where 15 mL (one-day dose) sachets are by far the biggest seller of toothpaste units. It is in this area of small dose packaging that the most support, knowledge and advice are required.

This recent RTP has been a good start. Ongoing education is required at all levels of the packaging spectrum, in both the formal and informal sectors. The AIP, in collaboration with WPO, has the knowledge, the resources, the first-world experience and the ability to share information and expertise. In fact, we have an obligation to help those in developing countries.

The APO and WPO are to be commended for taking the initiative to begin addressing this most serious need in Africa. The AIP can feel proud that it was approached to deliver this week of education and support. The AIP is committed to offering similar training over the next 12 months in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, China and Bangladesh. The road ahead is long and it is wide but the journey has commenced. The destination is not necessarily in sight but the rewards along the way for all involved will be big and long lasting.

You are invited to join in this journey as you begin thinking about your contribution to improving packaging standards around the world.

Pierre Pienaar is an education coordinator with the Australian Institute of Packaging (AIP).