By Lawani Mikairu

This year’s Drinktec 2017 fair, on Tuesday, kicked off in Lagos. It is the World leading trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry. The Lagos edition of the fair, which will last for 3 days, is a precursor to the major drinktec fair that will take place at the Messe Munchen exhibition centre in Munich, Germany from September 11th to 15th.

According to the organizers of the fair, on display at the Drinktec fair in Lagos and Munich, is the entire process chain in the beverage and liquid food industry: from manufacturing, filling and packaging through to marketing. Raw materials, beverage ingredients and logistics solution will be included in the display. The fair attracts 1,600 exhibitors from over 70 countries.

At the presentation of papers after the opening session in Lagos were Mr Ahmed Omah, Executive Director Institute of Packaging Nigeria, Martina Claus, Head of Market Development VDMA (German Engineering Federation) Food Processing and Packaging Machinery Association, Ingo Herbert, Consul General of Germany, and Michael Kloss, Managing Director KHS Nigeria .

In the presentation on Milk Products total volume sales , Mrs. Martina Claus, Head of Market Development, German Engineering Federation, said Nigeria recorded 38,682 tons global volume sales in 2016 with the volume projected to rise to 51,422 tons in 2020. The projection is a 32.9 per cent growth.

In the year under review, she said Nigeria was ranked among the top 10 markets for alcoholic drinks ,while the country was ranked 147th in the consumption of drinking milk products just as the country ranked 101th in the edible oils market.

During the question and answer section, it was revealed that in spite of the current economic recession in Nigeria, the country is the largest consumer of champagne in the world. This consumption pattern , according to the presenters, is a clear manifestation of misplacement of economic priorities. The resources so used in this luxurious item could be deployed into economic investment.