FoodPackLab partner-finding mission in Mumbai

The FoodPackLab project has arrived in India, as selected territory for potential collaborations with third countries. Since market studies showed that India is one of the most rapidly growing international markets for food processing and packaging, there are many opportunities for European SMEs with photonics, packaging and food tech solutions, addressing the current biggest challenges for the Indian food sector, such as decreasing food losses, especially those of storage and transit.

Therefore, the project coordinator secpho attended the Laser World of Photonics India and IFAT India exhibitions in Mumbai, in October 2019, in order to explore the state-of-art of photonics technologies in India, and to initiate contacts with key stakeholders working in the food sector.

As preparation for the FoodPackLab internationalization strategy, we selected two types of partners:

– those who will give matchmaking support with Indian food companies, as well as

– those who may support European SMEs with go-to-market solutions once they identified relevant counterparts in India.

Thanks to these new partnerships, we indentified topics for two first missions to India, which are food processing (special focus on food safety) and food packaging (special focus on food waste).