From May 22 to 24, the Packaging Cluster, in collaboration with the ACTION department of the Generalitat de Catalunya, organized a business mission to Finland. The initiative aimed to deepen the knowledge of the packaging ecosystem in the Nordic country, and was focused on exploring the packaging ecosystem with a special focus on sustainability and paper. During the trip, the nine participating Catalan companies had the opportunity to meet with six Finnish companies from the innovation, packaging and paper sectors.

The first visit was to the VTT technology center, a leader in innovative packaging solutions, specializing in sustainable and intelligent technologies. The participants, accompanied by the communications manager of Woodly - a company that produces a transparent bio-based material similar to plastic and derived from wood cellulose - were able to tour the facilities and observe the machinery used in pilot tests of film and cardboard In the afternoon, the delegation visited Paptic, a company dedicated to developing sustainable alternatives to traditional packaging, with a recyclable material based on wood fibers that offers more resistance than conventional paper.

On Wednesday 23 May, the group moved to the town of Imatra to visit one of the factories of Stora Enso, a leading company in solutions based on wood and biomass. The visit included a full tour of the paper production process, from the forest to the innovation center, providing an in-depth understanding of the company's operations. The last day of the mission included three outstanding visits. The first was at UPM, a world leader in pulp, paper and wood products, where innovations in its business areas related to packaging were discussed.

Afterwards, the delegation visited Sulapac, a company that produces bio-based materials from wood and works with large companies such as Burger King; and the day concluded with a visit to the start-up LignEasy, which is revolutionizing the pulp industry with lignin separation technology.

According to the president of the Cluster, Martina Font: "this experience has been crucial to obtain a privileged vision of the future of the sector and to acquire valuable tools for the evolution and continuous improvement of Catalan companies in the sector". Font also believes that carrying out business missions like this are essential to thoroughly understand the ecosystems of a region and detect trends in the sector that allow participating companies to interact directly with key players, acquire new perspectives and improve common practices.

The mission, which is part of the internationalization plan designed with the help of the ACTION department of the Generalitat de Catalunya, had the participation of associated companies Font Packaging Group, Innovapack, Ainia, Aimplas, Derypol, Lecta, Hinojosa and Trading Films. The Packaging Cluster The Packaging Cluster is a non-profit organization that was established in 2012 by several Catalan companies and that today brings together more than 140 active members among companies, knowledge centers and entities that represent the entire value chain of the packaging sector. packaging and packaging.

The main objective of the entity is to help the competitive improvement of the companies that make it up, with the aim of solving the challenges of the current context, promoting innovation and generating new business opportunities.