Seminar on Improving Marketability through Quality Packaging & Bar Coding
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Dr R K Dhawan, Chairman, FIEO(NR) (centre) addressing the meet. On his right is Mr. Sunil Agnihotri, Director, FIEO(NR) and on his left is Mr. Deepak Khedkar, Joint Director, Indian Institute of Packaging. |
Global economic slowdown and rupee appreciation are eating into our operating profits. In this scenario, we must understand and adopt sound marketing tools to optimize our operating profits, sustain and improve our market reach and enhance our product acceptability in the international market. Packaging, also called "silent salesman," can be a very effective tool to enter and compete in today’s international market. FIEO’s Northern Region Chairman Dr R. K. Dhawan said this in a Seminar on Improving Marketability through Quality Packaging & Bar Coding oragnised by FIEO on 2 April at New Delhi.
Referring to another marketing tool, bar coding, Dr Dhawan said that it helped to manage one’s supply chain smoothly and systematically. "Some of our largest markets like the United States and the European Union demand end-to-end traceability, especially in case of food exports. They have implemented laws seeking exporters to comply with traceability requirements and this can be achieved through barcoding our supplies to these countries. Given the potential of bar coding as a business tool, the days are not far off when many buyers might make the use of barcode mandatory for export consignments." Dr. Dhawan added.
Mr. Deepak Khedkar, Joint Director, Indian Institute of Packaging, during his presentation on "Role of Packaging in Exports" said that packaging was a means of ensuring safe delivery of a product to the ultimate consumer by minimizing the loss of product values during transit. His presentation focused on principles of packaging, functions of packaging, packaging criteria, packaging attributes, design consideration, package evaluation for export worthiness, packaging materials, packaging laws, labeling and marking.
Mr. Gopal Valecha, Manager (Business development), GS1 India in his presentation on "Importance of barcoding in International Market" defined barcodes as series of vertical bars and spaces enabling automatic data capture. "Barcodes are graphical machine-readable formats, which are read accurately and immediately by barcode scanners connected to computer systems. The barcodes contain information like product identity, manufacturer’s identity, batch number, expiry dates etc." He said.
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Explaining the benefits of barcoding, Mr. Valecha said that the barcodes enabled automatic data capture eliminating manual data entry at various points of supply chain, ensured 100% accuracy and high speed of data input, helped easier integration with in-house software applications, offered effective product track & trace and facilitated faster customer turnaround at the points of purchase. Mr. Valecha also informed that the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium |
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Mr. Deepak Khedkar interacting with the participant. |
Enterprises offered incentives to MSMEs by reimbursing 75% of their one time registration fee as well as annual fees payable to GS1 India, formerly known as EAN Indian.
