In recent months, Australia has been ravaged by one disaster after another. Drought, fire, floods, and now a pandemic. And every time, without fail, the packaging industry has risen to the challenge of supporting the greater community and innovating in the face of crisis. PKN spoke to Australian Institute of Packaging members who represent different packaging sectors about their response to the current crisis.
As I write this on 9 April, Australia’s states and territories are in various levels of shutdown. We have recorded 6073 cases of Covid-19, and our death toll is at 51. Relative to other nations, we are in a good position. For the most part, Australians have responded well to the federal and state government’s social distancing regulations, and without digging too deeply into the statistical reporting, in simple terms, we are flattening the curve. But it is early days, and the message is clear, conquering this pandemic will come at a huge cost, socially and economically, for all of us.
As a packaging journalist, it has been a privilege to report on the positive response made by so many companies and individuals in our industry in their efforts to not only ensure the safety of their own staff, lend support to their customers and suppliers, and pivot their businesses to solve immediate shortages of supply. The pandemic has highlighted the community’s basic needs for security of supply, food safety and product protection – and in this the packaging industry has a huge role to play.
For Melbourne-based flexible pouch specialist OF Packaging, even before the shutdown was mandated by government, the company had moved quickly to implement new processes and technologies throughout its business to ensure minimal impact to the people involved at all levels of its supply chain.
“We believe some of these changes brought about by necessity will continue to have a long-term, positive influence in the packaging industry with the urgent need for food supplies resulting from the uptake product demands,” Joe Foster, managing director of OF Packaging, says.
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Courtesy of PKN Packaging News
www.packagingnews.com.au