Nonwoven Tech Africa
Interview with Sanyal Sir – CEO at Radeecal Communications – Ahmedabad, India / By : Mahboobeh Ghayedi – Middle East Textile Journal
Radeecal communications through it’s exhibition platforms have a vision of exploring and providing business opportunities present in the continent of Africa.
1. please let us know more about Nonwoven Tech Africa, goals and history?
Radeecal communications has been organising ‘Nonwoven Tech Asia’ exhibition annually in India since 2014 with the prime focus on the development of Indian market and with an aim of providing immense B2B and B2C opportunities for our National & International exhibitors & visitors.
With the experience of organising physical exhibitions in Kenya on varied subjects since 2014 and with the regional extensive research undertaken for understanding the dynamics of Non-woven sector, we are organising a Virtual exhibition “NON WOVEN-TECH AFRICA 2020”.
Our new initiative will surely provide growth momentum for the Non-woven sector in Africa and the Middle East which will help them get a closer look of the international non-woven market.
By ‘Non- Woven-Tech Africa 2020’ we are hopeful that it will help the domestic Non-woven sector of Africa & Middle East to develop & diversify in terms of global competitiveness, technology, quality of products, trends and many more to add up. The road map of the virtual exhibition has already been decided and with our strategic and visionary focus on all the essential key points needed, we are committed to make the virtual exhibition impactful and helpful to all our fellow members associated with the Non-woven sector globally.
2. What do you think about the Middle East and Africa textile and nonwoven sector and its potentials?
There is a strong scope of growth in the Non-woven sector post-Covid-19 crisis if focused properly upon in Africa and Middle East. Disposable Non-woven segment will be the torchbearer of success for the emerging economies & also for the developed economies out of the overall Non-woven Industry due to the obvious current Covid-19 crisis that we are in.
Focusing more on Personal Hygiene & Medical applications which is going to be a necessity in the current as well as upcoming times, Disposable Non-woven can surely be the next Big Thing to look out for in terms of growth in Africa & Middle East.
Along with this the increase in spending capacity of the people in the region can also be a major growth driver of the nonwoven sector in the region. Rising population, Urbanisation and awareness will also play an important role in increasing the demand of nonwoven products in the region.
3. Do you have any prediction from number of exhibitors and visitors in your upcoming show? Which countries in the Middle East and Africa are your main target?
In Nonwoven Tech Africa we expect 150 exhibitors & 500 Buyers with minimum 2000 business visitors. Main countries which we are targeting are Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, UAE and Turkey.
4. How do you evaluate the future of textile exhibitions in the world? What kind of innovation is expected in your future exhibitions? Virtual events are a permanent solution or only a short term solution for corona lockdown period?
Well the overall exhibition and conference industry itself is one of the worst hit sector due to the Covid19 crisis. In context to the future of textile exhibitions held across the world I would like to say that ‘This is Just a bend, not the end’. The global Textile Industry is estimated to be around $ 900 billion.
With this one cannot neglect the fact that global Textile Industry is under enormous pressure to not only adapt the present scenario but also to understand the future trends globally.
Looking at the present scenario I believe that in the upcoming decade Textile Exhibitions will be organised in large numbers targeting the regions of Africa, Middle East and Indo Pacific which are going to have huge growth potential in terms of production & consumption.
Talking about innovations, we have brought one by launching ‘i radeecal’ an in house designed virtual exhibition platform.
No one is certain about how the future will be and so are we. But we have certain agendas on which we will be working upon, one of it is keeping the futuristic approach in mind to design a hybrid exhibition structure combining the features of physical exhibitions and virtual exhibitions.
In context to the virtual events is a permanent solution or not? I have said this in many Interviews before and I would like to say the same thing here that I genuinely believe that nothing matches the profound impact of physical exhibitions. For time being physical exhibitions can be overshadowed by virtual ones mainly due to the pandemic situation that we are in.
Virtual exhibitions cannot fully replace physical exhibitions. But saying this I also believe that virtual exhibitions cannot be neglected. It is a platform which will have a certain market share in post coronavirus future. Thus, we are working on designing a hybrid exhibition structure.
5. How big is the nonwoven sector in the Middle East and Africa?
Middle East and Africa are the region of great diversity and it is going through a transition phase both economically and socially, Africa in particular. There is an increase in the number of production lines set up in the last decade.
The development of diaper market in these regions convincingly reflects the growth potential. Turkey and South Africa have shown exponential growth in the nonwoven sector over the past decade. From Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt to Saudi Arabia and Iran have shown promising growths over the past years which clearly defines how dynamic these regions are.
The big multinationals have started to come in the region on large numbers and have started to set up their own production lines as per their capacities. Those who will enter these emerging markets with convictions will surely be successful in these regions.
The nonwoven sector is still in an early stage of development in these regions but looking at the potential one can say that in future it will surely give a stiff competition to Asia Pacific region in terms of growth rate and rising demand.
6. What are the major barriers in the textile industry and virtual events in the region? Do you have any technological barrier in Africa for virtual events like internet & infrastructure?
The textile and garment industry presents a unique opportunity for countries seeking to pursue industrialization. The sector helps to diversify the economy, and if geared towards exports, it can be a good source of foreign exchange. African countries in particular faces a host of challenges and opportunities alike.
These includes a weak business environment; a scarcity of skilled and unskilled workers, high cost of production, and low-level infrastructure. African countries needs to build adequate infrastructure and through Information and Communications Technology needs to tap into global value chains.
In context to the technological barrier in Africa, I would like to say that through our Virtual exhibition platform we are trying to build a ‘Digital Culture’ for our exhibitors and visitors to thrive in this digital business era.
The internet and Digital infrastructure of the region can be considered to be a bit backward if compared with the developed infrastructure and high speed internet facilities like it is in Europe. But still it is pretty much easily accessible and available in major cities of the African continent.
With this we are also going to conduct series of webinars before the exhibition to educate our exhibitors and visitors about how to navigate through our virtual exhibition platform. We also have a dedicated team who is going to look after our visitors and exhibitors to help them have all the necessary conveniences needed for attending the virtual exhibition.
To cut long story short, there can be some technical issues but we at Radeecal communications believe that it’s manageable. Moreover we have our regional office in Kenya and we also have support of many associations across different countries of the continent which will help us to resolve any issue that we will come across related to Internet & technological Infrastructure.
About RADEECAL COMMUNICATIONS
Radeecal Communications, promoted by a team of marketing and finance professionals, is a one-stop shop for total communication solutions.
We are best known for our creative approach for organising International Technology Exhibition & Conference on Agriculture, Non-Woven, Waste Water & Environment Technology, Plastics, Food Tech, Ceramics, Medical and health, Logistics & Wood Industries
Business Profile of Interviewee
[email protected]
20 years successful experience in serving Industrial Exhibition Industry
EDUCATION : Master of Business Administration (MBA), Gujarat University, Gujarat, India
