PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2021

TOP TALK PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 07+08/21 www.petpla.net 10 Interview with Auri Marçon, president of the PET industry association Abipet Brazil: PET helping a rollercoaster year for the package market by Gabriele Kosmehl During the height of the Corona pandemic in 2020, companies in the PET value chain were also among those that stopped their operations as a precautionary measure - for a short time. It was not only the continuing high demand for PET bottles that had to be met, but also interruptions in the supply chain for other types of containers such as aluminium, glass or polyolefins which had to be absorbed with PET. And this high demand is not the only good news. There are also positive long-term developments to report in the opening up of new areas of application and the further development of the recycling industry. This is not least due to the work of the Brazilian PET association Abipet. PETplanet: Mr Marçon, Abipet is the non-profit Brazilian PET Industry Association. Can you please tell us what exactly you do and what your goals are as an organisation? Marçon: Yes, Abipet is a non- profit organisation integrating the whole industrial steps related to the PET process: virgin resin manufactur- ers, preforms & bottles converters, sheets and thermoforming produc- ers and recyclers. There is also the technology committee supporting all technical challenges including poly- merisation, post-condensation, drying systems, injection, recycling, filtration, transportation, etc. International and local companies are our members: Alpek, Indorama, Amcor, Engepack, Gneuss, Husky, Krones, Piovan, Poly- metrix, 3 Rios, ClearPET, GreenPCR, GlobalPET, Resipol, Lamina and others. PETplanet: What are the priority issues that are currently driving your agenda and that of your members? Marçon: Currently our main focuses are on environmental chal- lenges and growing market segments. Just like all over the world the plastic industry is under attack here and not only by environmentalists but also by legislators, governors and other com- petitive materials. Even being the most recycled plastic with high end applica- tions like bottle-to-bottle food grade, we, representing the PET industry sector, have a lot of things to do. Most issues we have been facing are related to the absence of information at sev- eral different levels of the society. Life Cycle Inventory and Circular Economy amongst others are concepts still unknown by the non-technical citi- zens, and mass communication is very expensive. Greenwashing from other materials competitors will not cooper- ate, of course. Concerning growing market seg- ments, special attention is required from the new market segments for PET like beer, home and personal care, dairies, rtd juices and solid food. The challenge here is to identify the right moment when package producers or brand owners are reviewing their original pro- duction lines opening opportunities to show PET advantages. Technical sup- port, market information and environ- mental performance of PET containers need to be provided. PETplanet: It is now several years since we took a close look at the Brazilian market in PETplanet (issue 1+2/2014 ff). At that time, the PET beverage market was showing a strong growth trend. How has it devel- oped since then? Marçon: The local market has been following the world tendency with water rising faster during the last 10 years while soft drinks are reducing their share in the same period. Other beverages based on “healthiness concept” like teas, juices (concentrate or rtd), flavoured drinks, energisers as well as beverages for hydration are also growing. Brazil is a traditional agricultural country producing many kinds of meals and fruits at a favourable sce- nario for healthy beverages. It means that there is a significant amount of people drinking natural juices and this is a challenge for industrialised/ commercialised beverages that are supplying around 50% or 57% of the beverage’s consumption last year. The most important products bottled in PET containers are: soft drinks (43%), water (28%), edible oil (13%) (percentages estimated based on the last 3 years). PETplanet: Dairies in PET was seen as a particular growth market back in 2014. Can you say something about its performance in recent years? Marçon: Initially, about 5 years ago, the supermarket shelves were invaded by UHT milk brands bottled in PET containers, and now also yogurts and flavoured milk are replacing their original packages (polyolefin and cardboard) with PET. The low-cost production and the presentation of their products were originally their