The Food Tech Summit, held on the margins of Gulfood Manufacturing 2022 in Dubai, featured over 100 keynote speakers from the food and beverage industries. The three-day summit covered a wide range of subjects and challenges that will define the future of food production, including food engineering advancements, future metaverse factories, developing markets, food security, circular economy systems, sustainable finance methods, and others.
Marcelo Piva, Director of Sustainability at Tetra Pak Middle East and Africa, spoke on the second day of the Food Tech Summit about Saudi Arabia’s strategy and a route toward the industrial revolution and sustainability. The Kingdom’s large, efficient, and influential food production sector ecosystem has a tremendous unmet opportunity for the food and beverage industries.
Marcelo emphasized the importance of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the largest consumer market in Asia and the Middle East, with a market worth $42 billion predicted to develop and rise at a pace of 3%. The Kingdom also hopes to meet its aim of localizing 85% of food processing and processing resources by 2030.
Marcelo stressed the importance of collaborative innovation as an element of empowerment for enterprises in this area to contribute to the economy’s overall growth and serve our planet. He emphasized Tetra Pak’s position and status, which has been a critical element of the Kingdom’s social and economic progress for more than four decades, and where its aims are in harmony and under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 via essential collaborations that help to accomplish its goals. Tetra Pak has partnered with two leading recycling companies, Obeikan Paper Industries (OPI) and Saudi Top Plastic Factory (STP). Through a joint investment of more than 3 million euros, the project aims to increase cartons collection and recycling and create value for this post-consumer carton waste by recycling all packaging components.
Marcelo closed his address by emphasizing Tetra Pak’s ongoing and unshakable commitment to environmental policies and standards, stating that the company wants to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in its area of operations by 2030. It strives to supply cartons entirely made of renewable or recycled, recyclable, and carbon-neutral materials in its product packaging through its programs and projects to fulfil its Go Carton, Go Nature and through collaborations that contribute to actual change.