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Tokyo Pack 2018 saw Japan’s packaging industry working to scale back the nation’s huge food losses, finding ways into international marketplaces as domestic consumption dwindles with the population size and strategies to overcome a labour shortage, all the while trying to do right by the environment.

A special Tokyo Pack edition marked 50 years of the Asia Packaging Federation (APF) in the city of its birth with an AsiaStar awards ceremony rounded off with traditional Japanese dancing, and a seminar which highlighted Asian issues and the global, creeping metamorphosis of production, distribution and retailing, catalysed by advancing technologies with unforeseeable possibilities and unpredictable timelines.

Individual badge-holding visitors and exhibitors totalled 62,488 over the four-day show and peaked at 17,065 on the final day. They included overall 3,881 overseas visitors, which was 11.4 per cent higher than the previous edition and for the Japan Packaging Institute team of organisers this was proof of a growing international profile it has worked towards for the past two years.

On assignment for PKN, Joanne Hunter delivers Tokyo Pack’s top take-outs.

Food & Drink Business

Plant-based protein production company, Australian Plant Proteins (APP), has been acquired by My Co, the investment vehicle for the Paule Family Office, which focuses on FABtech (Food, Agri & Bio) start-ups. APP was the first company in Australia to develop and commercialise a plant protein isolate powder.

Fonterra Co-operative Group has appointed Elizabeth (Liz) Coutts as chair-elect of Mainland Group, the proposed divestment entity of Fonterra’s global consumer business. This announcement follows the selection of René Dedoncker as CEO-elect and Paul Victor as CFO-elect in February.

Australian food and nutrition science company, FOODiQ Global, is gearing up for ‘Mission MushVroom’, a first-time attempt to grow mushrooms in space. The experiment will take place on the upcoming Fram2 mission, targeted to launch aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this week.