VDMA: Germany is the worldwide largest confectionary machinery manufacturer

"Germany is worldwide both the biggest manufacturer and the biggest exporter of confectionary machinery", explains Richard Clemens, Managing Director of VDMA Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Association in occasion of the interpack 2011 in Düsseldorf on Thursday. "According to estimates of the VDMA Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Association, worldwide production volume of machinery and equipment for production and packaging of sweets amounts around 2.2 billion Euros in 2010. Almost one quarter of the machinery at a value of 550 million Euros comes from German production", Clemens emphasized.

Export quota for confectionary machinery was 40 percent in 2010

"The share of German companies in the worldwide export was 40 percent in 2010. The German manufacturers exported confectionary machinery at a value of 213 million Euros", Clemens said. "We ship our products to over 100 countries worldwide. Most important sales region was Europe with a share of 50 percent. Asia is in second place with 18 percent followed by Near and Middle East and Latin America in place four." so Clemens. "For years the most important single market for German confectionary machinery is Russia with a delivery share of 60 percent. 2010 the deliveries to Russia increased by almost 8 percent to 51.5 million Euros. The USA has been driven out to the fourth place by Japan and Brazil. Further Top 10 markets have been the Ukraine, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, the Iran and China", Clemens reported.

Global confectionary markets grows with high dynamic.

The confectionary machinery industry is a highly specialized engineering sector and can look back to a decade lasting dynamic development. According to the British market research institute Euromonitor International the worldwide sales of confectionary was 14 million tons in 2010 and will rise to 15.5 million tons till 2015 – an increase of almost ten percent. "The biggest confectionary markets are in Western Europe and North America. About half of the trade volume is sold there. The dynamic growth markets are in Asia, the Middle East/Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Predictions assume that the sales in those regions rise between two and four percent averagely per year", Clemens explained.

Energy efficient packaging technology in focus of the interpack

In many growth markets, confectionary manufacturers are primarily focused on improving the product quality – whether to succeed in competition with imported products, achieve higher margins or enter new markets. "This requires sophisticated technologies at the highest level of processing technology, since the technology used is of decisive importance for the quality of the products", Clemens emphasized. "Suitable packaging technology for all these products complements the offering for confectionary producers."

Innovations, which can be expected from the visitors from confectionary machinery manufacturers at the interpack aim the increase of the profitability and efficiency of machinery and equipment: Fast product and quality changes with as short as possible changeover times, easy cleaning with low consumption of resources, high flexibility of the packaging plant and not least solutions, that contribute to energy consumption optimization.