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Twelve international buyers from seven different countries will be visiting Andigráfica for the first time. This event brings together nearly 200 exhibitors and 25,000 visiting professionals from the graphics industry every two years.
" The invitation was for the countries where we have identified the most significant business opportunities for the sector. So, we have buyers from Panama, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Ecuador," indicated María Claudia Lacouture, PROCOLOMBIA President.
In addition to discovering what Colombia has to offer at the trade show, they will also participate in a business forum organized by PROCOLOMBIA and the Colombian Association for the Graphic Communication Industry (Andigraf, in Spanish).
The date is set for June 6 at Corferias, with 30 Colombian exporters who will be offering many products, including labels, folding carton, printing services and flexible packaging.
Among the buyers are some of the most important companies from their countries of origin. They include QUALA from the Dominican Republic and Pan American Grain, one of the largest agro-industrial companies in the Caribbean.
This will be the second business forum held by PROCOLOMBIA at the trade show. The first one took place in 2011.
Opportunity in 13 Markets
In its effort to identify opportunities, PROCOLOMBIA found that exporters from the graphics industry have the potential to sell their products in 13 markets: Argentina, Bolivia, the Caribbean region, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru and the United States.
In Costa Rica and Panama, for example, the potential is in packaging that involves protection and graphic design. On the other hand, there are possibilities to export folding carton, lids and containers to Guatemala, especially for the food and pharmaceutical sectors in that country.
PROCOLOMBIA has also identified business options for plastic products in the United States, Central America and some Caribbean nations, where the demand is concentrated in smaller packages or individual portions and cups and plastic containers for the industry.
Among Colombia' s competitive advantages is the sector' s capacity and its use of state-of-the-art technology, which allows it to address the requirements of international demand for finishes, types of material, printing, production capacity and delivery times.
Some entrepreneurs, specifically container manufacturers, are starting to include biodegradable material in the production process, i.e. PLA (a corn derivative) and sugar cane bagasse, which helps them to be more competitive internationally.
According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism with data from DANE, Colombian graphics industry exports in 2012 totaled 263.2 million. Books, plastic packaging, paper and carton packaging and school and office supplies were the main products exported in 2012. Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, the United States and Mexico were the
