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RESTRICTED dp/id /ser.a /i»o8 10 January 1983 ENGLISH

SURVEY OF THE PACKAGING INDUSTRY FOR PROPOSAL « OF AN INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

SI/J0R/81/801

JORDAN

* Technical report: A survey of the packaging industry

Prepared for the Government o f the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, acting as executing agency for the United Nations Development Programme

Based on the work o f John Salisbury, expert in packaging technology

United Nations Industrial Development Organization Vienna

* This document has been reproduced without formal editing.

I

V.83 50191 - 2 -

CONTENTS

Page

A. INTRODUCTION 3

B. SUMMARY 3 - 4

C. OBSERVATIONS 5

1 . The Corrugated Box Industry 6 - Q

2. Folding 10 - 14

3. Plastic 15 - 20

4. Plastic Films and laminates 21 - 22

5. Containers 23 - 26

6. Metal Containers 27 - 30

7. Wooden 31 - 32

8. Sacks and Woven Plastic Sacks 33 - 34

9. The Introduction o f Packaging Technology into Jordanian Industry 35 - 44

10. Recovery or Disposal o f Used Packages 45 - 51

D. RECOMMENDATIONS 52 - 58

ANNEXES

1. List of Contacts 59 - 63

2« Survey and Appraisal of the Main Types o f Packaging Used for Jordanian Products 64 - 77

3» last of Equipment Available in the RSS laboratories at Present 78

4. List of Additional Equipment that could Comolement Present Ranee 70

5» Survey of the Packaging Industry in Jordan - Reports on a Series of V isits 80 - 144

6 Job Description 145 - 146 —'-rro03'T7,7r73'-'

T'-.-0 \\Or*r CU1S 7'p'7Cr'~ ‘.-.*SS C1—* F. 3 - ¿overnzer.t of The KasheEite Kingdom. c f Jordan as or. a i l rcvinr the suirtinr tack::, ping situation ir. Jordan and to oretarirc an ir.t° o or. the: further ieveic"'Eent of ore race:-car. g industrv ar.d the ear centralised institution', The troject follov.'s th Arab= 0 Zlation-.I!Tat=-~>- rac-tapm;: Coxcittees throuch the Industrial Deveiccuent "lentr® :or Arao states.

1. Visits v;?re made to tackacing manufacturers, users and related organisatiens to assess the oresent ocsition. Thirty-°ight detailed v isit retorts were ore tare i .as a basis for this report, oooies were deposited •■:ith the Ministry of Trade and Industry and The Chamber cf Iniurtrv. 2. An assesscent was carried out of the tree and condition of the tackagdng being used for Jordanian troducts ax the ooint of sale to the tublic. The results are recorded in Annex 2. In general, Jordanian oroduced oroducts were found to be coorly packed. 3. Suggestions •‘‘or an ixtrovexent crograxxe are cade through 7- recocraer.datior.s. Sore of the main recommendation? are: a. To focus food can troductior. on one joint venture tout any to seek a cajor incrovecent in the crcs=nt level and to create a source of good, practical advice to earners. b. To re~iirect the treser.t ratio growth of ii?tosable containers from aluminium and tir.tlate cans towards 1:. gha ■.-/eight glass and clastic containers as a suttorx for ir.di ger.our xanufacture ano. to intrcv= recovery cossibilities. c. To reduce the number of oomoani^s engaged in clastic conversion and set ainiaur. standards for their troducts. d. To discourage the growing tendency for croduct manufacturers

to make their out. packaging esteciall.y in clastic tots, clastic , cans and cartons. Stecialiaed coxtar.ies can in general do a better job and their troducts are made available fr -e lv to a ll croduct manufueturer: *. A central testing and levelocxent laboratory is essential but if it is to aak« any real ixe&ct on the manufacturing and ur»r industries vo os 1‘ ,i***c*n thor c ** T1 dur"tr*i**s ir.nr^ "hf* ",^X1 Vfllv *. 7.ri rr ”00^Sc “3y -h ir rr.°^nr| Sri6 '.nd 3 i j.1 i * V* oi' t* stir. 7 can V improved and the csrt sonsiieraolv reduced. f. That recovery efforts based on domestic waste are unlikely to hi successful and should not be turcu°d ax crasent. - i -

:overy of plans and oa~>er are the coot attract!’ schemes concentrate on recovery before er.trv i ’ domestic v;asce scream. h. hard f i l l lochs lihe the "best disooral method for used ■ac.-sara ns ir. Jordan. 1. V.'asce derived fuels ••-.'ere worth a re-ricnal examination. That a standardised ranre olasci'* ~ontamers ror ncusenoca oroductr for the v:hoie Arab Region should he introduced as a means of imorovinm -erformance, reducinr waste and considerably increasing the chances of success o f the ores^nc schemes to dev»loo oiastio mould-malting in Jordan and the Region. h. That the develooinr ylass container industry in Jordan should be comolemented by a specialised oroaucer, possibly as cart of the same crouo, to enable a complete service to be offered to customers. In most cases, su^.~°stionr as to how these recommendations can be molemer.ted, are contained either in the Observations section of this report r in the v is it reports. - 5 -

C. 0 3 SZ3 YATIOI'TS

After each visit to industry, a report was prepared describing the observ­ ations that seemed relevant to the survey. Copies of these 36 reports have been deposited with ohe Ministry cf Trade and Industry and The Ctamber cf Industry. Those reports contain the information upon which the consultant has based the conclusions end development suggestions. They have not been included with this report because it was felt that the companies who participated so freely in the survey would prefer their information and comments to have very restricted circulation A summary of the visit reports is given however. The characteristics of the packaging in use in Jordan was appraised not only during v isits to manufacturers and user companies, but also by v isitin g the places where goods are offered fcr sale to the public, the shops and supermarkets of Amman. Comments were recorded cn the spot and are presented in tabular form in Annex 2. - 6 -

THE CORHÜCATED 30a irPUSTHY Survey of the Corrumat ed Box Converter Industry (Material and Container Manufacturer)

Ther° is just one mill making rarer and one converter E£.kinr corrugated bores m jora?.’ maximum capacity of the r i l l os 1C,0CC cons rer year and rresent OUtCt is m ie order of :,0C0 tons. The ccmcanv is inlerendent and has no know-how agreements. The'Government is a major shareholder. Lir.erboard is imported from the U.S.A. and Sweden. Fluting medium is either imrortei from Soain or made in the m ill on a three mstre oarer machine, hast? oarer is collected in Jordan and also brought in from neighbouring States. The corrugator is one and one-half metres wide and can be used for single face, double face and for doubi0 wall corrugated, but there is said to be r.o demand. The caracity for corrugated board rroduction is said to be '£,000 tons rer year; at rresent the output is in the order of SiOOO tens rer year. Last year 4,000 tons went to the local market and 5?0C0 tons to oxcort, mostly to Ira r. Cutting and creasinr can be done in line on the corrugaron, but only in the machine direction. The;/ have one modern Simon rrin ter,b lotter working most of the time on three shifts; a second machine is on order. Boxes with glued sida seams are rroduced at 10,000 boxes rer hour. Two-colour flexo rrinting is carried out, a ll inks beinr imrorted. Stereos w ill be rroduced in the near future from rhetosensitive clastic. Typical rroducts are 150/'30/l50. 1í.?/l50/^50* ' 61/130/I6I and for exrort use 150/ 130/2OO. They like to o ffe r two grades, one for the home market and one for export goods. ITo certification of weight and burst value is given. They use imrorted starch-based on the corrugator and local FVA adhesives for side seam gluing. The biggest exnansion rotential is seen in the fruit and vegetable market. The company has relied entirely on craft skills in the past with few technological aids to monitor raw materials or cuality of the box rroduction.

Survey of the Corrugated Box User Industry Discussions were held with sixteen users of corrugated boxes in the following industries : soars and detergents, beer, soft drinks, pharmaceuticals, biscuits, chewinc gam, clastic bottles ana cots, casta rroducts, cigarettes and tobacco. They buy boxes from the local converter and from sources abroad, e.g. Cycrus, the Lebanon and Turkey. Almost all exrressei a long history of dissatisfaction with the cuality of the locally made corrugated boxes and the r°?.sons given included; - 7 -

-T^11 ■ ZT * 1 ® r ___4T n C? «u Vli^TI - iii* ------jOiVi” - if U- - -C w 'u*rii -___ .k* .Ui------T ;yr:r;.. — ^ ««.. . - uu._ 1 4 X« • Lack o f adequate compression resistance. Lack of adequate tear resistance. Poor standard of rr*nting, in that print was often ir. the non-or area, rub resistance- of the print inadequate, dull colours, msr te r. poor sharpness of image, ink set-off, colour variation. Poor control over dimensional variations leading to problems on t automatic tacking lines, f intended delivery times. i i . Problems Associated with Corrugated 3c>:es and Possible Development Actions a. duality Criticisms It seemed generally agreed that there had been a very real improvement in

quality over the cast year, but the poor image built up over the years w ill take a long time to dispel. As regards the quality of the , it was clear that there is s t i ll a great deal to do to imorove on the very low level. Judgement on the ohysicai performance of the bones is made d iffic u lt by the fact that a ll evaluations are subjective assessments of what happens in practice, the complete absence of any measurements of the ohysicai prooerties of the materials of construction or the bones and the comoarison of the local with the imported varieties under controlled conditions. The equipment and enoertise to carry out the tests on the materials only have been available in RSS for some time but have not apparently been aoplied to the oroblems to any great extent. The eruioment for measuring bon comoression resistance and other transit characteristics is not available in Jordan It is the oerformance of the box in actual use conditions that re a lly matters of course, but i f complaints are shown to be v a lii they have to be investigated under controlled conditions. Comparisons are needed either with agreed specifications (which are rare in developing countries) or with earlier deliveries that have been found to be satisfactory in practice. In the absence of any means of measurement those properties considered important by the user cannot be shown to be within acceptable limits by the supplier and opinion as to quality is hardly ever the basis for settling a claim which is the greatest spur to product improvement. It is equally true thao without being able to define and measure the pro­ perties that need to be improved, it is very difficult to bring improvements about since improvement almost alwavs comes lit t le by lit t le as the result of a -Treat deal of thought and e ffo rt. V.'ithcut a reliable feedback as to the t*ne op extent of ar.v improvement achieved by experiments, consistent progress is d iffic u lt to achieve. The consultant did not see any marked evidence that the strength of the

boxes in Jordan was causing any serious problems at the present time. One - 3 -

could bs that the products gave grorf support to the corrugated outer (e.T. canned goods, cartons of detergen- no’.-der, bottled goods; or the products were ligh t enough not to make any real demands on the boxes (e. tissues, cigarettes, e t c ). There is very l i t t le use of corrugated boxes fo r the shiomont of fruit and vegetables in Jordan; almost a ll is by wooden . '.Vith these products, protection against crushing is very imoortant and the performance of boxes becomes immediately apparent. However, f ille d plastic bottles are both heavy and need protection against crushing and oar bs very demanding too, es^eciall; i f long joum ies by road are involved, and in this application the performance □f the local boxes is said to be below that of boxes obtainable elsewhere. b. Print Quality

The inks being used are being bought from manufacturers in industrialized countries and the equipment is the same as that used in those countries. Any improvement, therefore,can only come from the efforts c f the managanent and workers of the factory involved. It is possible to measure some of the properties complained about, a.g. rub resistance but what seems to be needed most is a system of quality measurement i r the factory to focus attention ci. the rather poor quality work that is being regularly turned out. c. The Reported lack of Compression Resistance ar.d Tear Resistance

The consultant formed the impression that in many cases this was a judgement being strongly influenced by past experience. The converter is well aware cf the problem and has been employing expert assistance in improving the mediun used fc r some time, apparently with re al results. Resistance to compression during storage and tran sit is one of the most important orooerties and the equipment to measure the properties related to this should be acquired. The physical properties of the box and the materials are involved, the latter being chiefly the concern of the converter. Test equipment and the s k ills to use i t are needed in the mill and also be available to the users so that they may verify when necessary that they are getting what they are paying for. The converter is in the process of evaluating this change in their operating procedures and the question as tc how users may have access to same of the test equipment needed is discussed ir sane detail under section 9 'Packaging Technology'. At the request cf the converter, the consultant gave a presentation on paper testing to factory staff and helped in discussions on equipment selection. Sooner or later the corrugated box w ill be used in Jordan fo r the packaging of fru it and vegetables (when a ir shipments become more common) and when that happens the quality of the corrugated box w ill have to be very carefully mcr.itod and te s t emuiomc-nt '..'ill be v it a l. _ Q _ d. The Possible Production of All-Plastic Geminated Sexes

bsms COUn^TXB^ rtave iiitol'uuuusu whs pruuuCulCn uf CCi~i\igateu hexes imbwc entirely of p lastic. One user in Jordan rede seme very limited experiments but rejected the boxes because of stacking problems. The process of making boxes has been established for many years. This might appear an attractive idea to Jordan and to other Arab countries when plastic materials become more freely available. The basic material may be cheaper and w ill be from local sources. In the consultants experience, however, the all-clastic bos has not been the success hoped for, except where the water resistance cf the box has been especially useful, as in meat or fish packaging. Costs have normally been higher, handling and stacking hava been somewhat more d iffic u lt and disposal much more difficult for the big user than the fibreboard variety. Conditions in the Arab League countries are going to be very different to those in say South America (where the nlastic bones have been tried in a nunber cf places) and it may be that they are an attractive possibility for some applications, especially where re-use is required. A second corrugated board factory has apparently been suggested (but rejected) and oerhaos a special study of the all- is of interest, but at the present time it is difficult to see a potential market. 10 -

G.2. PJLOIZTG CART0I.S i . Survey of the Converter Industry There are five or six comcanies in Jordan that are basically general crinte who cake folding cartons as cart of tneir croduct ranсe, but on a verv email scale and sinine at the nor-mechanised, undemanding side of the market. It is unlikely they •.'ill successfully make folding cartons for erection, fillin g and closin- or cartonnin- machines 'Without introducin’ major chan ye? in e’uioment and skills. However, they will cater for the small user who normally hand assembles.

One re latively new conn any (one to two years old) is , however, very well er '♦ C P C to make good folding cartons. It has two new two-colour Rol and Litho cresses, fo r sheet sizes uc to 700mm x 1,000cm, a large, nev: Bobst cuttin~ and creasing cress (SP 102) ecuinced with automatic striccin r cacacity, a Boost straight line gluer and other ecuicment of a high standard. Litho elates are crecared on the oremises and a ll crinting inks are brought in from Prance, Germany and the U.K. A ll board is imeorted from Bulgaria, Austria, Sweden and seme other countries and is either white-lined chicboard (WLC) or cast-coated solid white for the charmaceutical industry. They make cartons for detergent cowders, tissues, soaos, confectionery and chocolates and are trying to succly the needs of the charmaceutical industry. The company is going through a difficult ceriod and is hardly usinr its cacacity. In stallin g the machinery and train in’ local sta ff has been d iffic u lt and they still have some way to go before they can benefit from their weli- crecared in"estment. A second large maker ocerates in a different war. This comcan.y is cart of a grouc that croduces large quantities of detergents, soac, tooth caste, etc. They manufacture the cartons recruired within the grouc and use any excess cacacity for outside users. They do own art work, colour separation and litho claxesand gravure rolls. Printing can be on one of two Roland litho cresses (a one-colour and a two-colour) or on a six-colour gravure cress, 2c", t hat can cut and crease in line. There is also a Bobst cuttin~ and creasing cress and a Bobst straight line gluer. 3oari is bought from Finland, Austria and Scain and is mostly VJLC, usinr about 3,000 tons per year -without croblems. Printing inks come mostly from Prance, Denmark and the U.K.; there is no local manufacture. Adhesives are bought mostly from Germany, they tried the local PVA but don’ t like it. Capacity will be increased in the next two years and a four-cclour litho cress is clanned. The clan ocerates more or less to it? cacacity at the cresent time. The third cart or. naker in Jordan is also manufacturing crincioaLIy for his own cons-amot: on, making cigarette cartons on very modem, four-colour, Chamber, gravure cresses ’.:hich cut and crease in line. Solid white board is imeorted from Sweden. It is very high "u ality and they have no real oroblem in conversion into cartons or in use on the high sceed caching lines. There are two match factories that make the scecial shell and slide cartons that they require for their product, on machinery soecially designed for the job. i . Survey o f the Poliinm Carton User Industry The user industry can be considered in three carts. Firstly, there are the users of carton systems (where the machine and the cartons come as a oackage deal). The two systems in use in Jordan are the Purecak system used for milk and the Tetrabrik system used for fru it juice. The cartons or scecial laminates needed are brought in from Hcrwa.y and Sweden, they are of very high cuality and no croblems are experienced on the machines or with the finished cacks. The material and cartons for tnese systems can probably never be made in Jordan, unless it was cart of a scheme to succly a Sub-region. The second grouc are in detergent, soac and tissue croduction. The users of cartons from the indecendent carton manufacturer seem fa ir ly satisfied and the carton looks good now and will no doubt get better. A little surcrisingly the cartons made by the grouc factory are coor in accearance and in "'erfornance. ObviousIv no attemet is being made to catch the ru ality of imeorted detergent couder or tooth caste cartons. The board is toe soft and thin for use on the high sceei machines being installed for carton erection, fillin g and closing and are unlikely to work well at the sreeds designed to be high enough to bring down costs. A number of retailers interviewed comclained strongly about the coor sifteroofness of the detergent cowder cartons causinr contamination of the shelves in the sucermarkets. Packed in the cresent way these oroducts cannot be exoected to comcete with imeorted oroducts and are unlikely to be suitable for excort. The third grouc are the charmaceuxical users and sim ilar (chewing gam, biscuits, e tc .) where good accearance is essential. They are not satisfied with what is available at the cresent time and buy their needs from the Lebanon and Cycrus. In many cases, they are erected, fille d and closed on high-sceed machinery, therefore the carton has to be right. Problems Associates •-■■'1th Foldinr Cartons and Possible Development Action? Beth Purecak and Tetrabrik cartons are made from carton board that has colj'ther.e extruded onto the face and back. In the case of Tetrabrik cartons for fru it voice the laminate is very complex as it also incoroorates an aluminium fo il laver. Such laminated materials cannot be made at any reasonable cost in a country with a market the size of Jordan’ s and unless a regional oroduction facili*y is claimed, flat is lik e ly to stay the case. Even with ?. regional market, the benefits to the country of converting here are not very attractive since all the materials have to be brought in seoarately and orobably the finished carton or reel of orinted stock is likely to cost the user more than bringing it in ready-made from abroad (it is not imoossible that the constituent carts would cost more than the whole). The systems are very good indeed, and can be acclied to oroducts other than liquids, but from the country’ s coint of view they have this great disadvantage that it is highly lik e ly that the material or cartons w ill have to be imeorted for ever more. If foreign exchange is freely available then this is not a real orobiec, but i f it became scarce in the future, being forced to always buy containers in this way could prove to be a oroblem as several countries have found to their dismay. It is not suggested that the oractice be discontinued of course, but i f the packaging of liouids is exceeding, it is suggested that serious thought be given to alternative systems, in carticular the ciastio which is often seen in Jordan re tailin g French croduced lo n g -life milk. 'There are all-clastic liruid carton s3/stems too, that could be considered and it is suggested that this facet of cackaging should be the subject of a svecial study so that ar.y new users might be encouraged to adoct a system that gives more scoce for local work content in its croduction. The charmaceutical manufacturers comclained that locally croduced cartons gave them croblems ’with cracking at the seams, mixing of types, lack of adequate control over dimensional variation and crease crocerties that are not conducive to good cerformance on high speed machines. Certainly cartons have to be very well made to satisfy the charmaceutical industry and the carton making industry is still very young in Jordan; with oractice, increased care and only when the carton manufacturers feel that they can ju stify cutting in a ruaiity control system, will the needs of the racidly growing charmaceutical industry be met. This is a case where some cackaginr laboratory technology can helc raise the standard to that required by this demanding industry and this coint is dealt with in the section on cackaginr technology. There is one coint worth mentioning, however, because it illustrates how manufacturers sometimes have to struggle with croblems that accear unnecessarily - 13 -

d iffic u lt. Ir. the industrialised countries, oany of the cosmetic and drug cartons are cade froc cast-coated solid white board because its very high gloss creates an insure of high cuality. While that is true, this tyre of board, Astralux would be an example, is the cost d iffic u lt to orint and crease and taxes the sh ills of long-established . Boards with verv s ic ila r appearance when varnished ar° much easier to convert and cheaper too, therefore thought night be gi^en as to ’whether the Arab Herd on eight b° better o ff not adopting this nartioular niece of established marketing strategy. One of the most disturbing nrobiems nut forward by the carton oroducers •was that un to very recently the import duty on the raw materials to make cartons was actually higher than the duty to be naid on ready orir+ed and finished cartons and therefore the chances of comneting on nrice considerations were very small. The oosition now is that the duty is the same which is s t i ll somewhat of a su n rise i f the aim is to encourage local industry to oroduce whatever they can so as to lower the demands on the available foreign exchange. However, information on the customs duty to be paid vary so widely that the nc‘ ition was by nc means clear, iv. The Introduction of Technology into Carton Production There are certain physical tests that can help in the production of good rtons. Some of these are: a. The stiffness of the b. The moisture content c. The ash content: The smoothness of th e. The creasability of £• The resistance to fo

7 , The rub resistance o h. The detergent resist i. The whiteness of the For a long time to come, in Jordan could ju stify the cost of the test eouioment involved or develop the expertise needed to annl.y the results to their machine conditions. However, much of the equipment needed, already exists in Jordan in the Paoer and Board Laboratory in the HSS and the remainder could be acquired at no great cost. The HSS laboratory already has a specialist in the use of this test equipment and they are in the process of bringing it into use. The gr^at problem is bridging the gap between industry and the laboratory. This is not just a Jordanian problem: it is a real problem ir. any country in the world and especially so in develooing countries. The reasons for this are detailed in - u - the section w?uoka.~in~ Technology" and some 'vav; round the *'roolec are rrororei. The ■’oint bein~ made here is that a oarer and hoard labcratorv car. heir a Treat deal when local carton manufacturers are strur~im ~ to match the -u ality of irarorted cartons. One of the ba.rrest rroblem is that the laboratory results are of verv little value until then are correlated to what barrens on the converter * s machinery or related to what actually barrens under the actual conditions , of use. The laboratory staff are not in a rosition to become really familiar with how the material or carton behaves in the factory, and the factory s ta ff do not understand how the tests can be of any assistance to their work. PI?-tic Cor.tr.in^r A arm f = c t ur i r. c Induotry The "'las'tic converter activity is very highly developed in Jordan.

- "t cìz.s'Z ^0x1^* r^3“3"”i°s H.1 i 1 v ? * t “ic”uS f'or' Thur* Y fruit jui ce and ice-cream. They wel »*■■"*** n-itì-" vith nicdem, hi*h out^ux machines and produce a first-cla 3? TT0 du The colystyrene is 1 -cortei as resi: r oc p *■>/■* • snc a f piloni, Bel gium, Greece -r It? into ro__c of heavy gauge f i l - . S 6 rJTS the p»’ii or Enrolled the user for his con-ersion into rots. Technical heir is readily ava. lahle from surrliers and they have no rrohlems. Typical container volumes are 100, "25, 200, 500, 750 and 1,000 cc. '..’aste is shredded and fed hack into the rrocess. Production is in excess of 50 million oer year. are of two kinds - heat seal f o il laminates and snar-on tyre. The laminates are imrorted ready rrinted, hut the s are mostly made in Jordan. The holy of the rot can he rrinted and two, three and four-colour cresses are in use. A scut 2rj oer cent of *'n out i? exnortf :o nei.chh our in; i-s'-l CT-. The companies have some snare capacity and are claiming exnansions. The number of factories involved in blowing nlastic containers is very larme considering the sice of the market. Estimates varied between 4.0 and 05. Hot only are there converters but many of the users blow their own containers. Prom discussions with the nroducers, it would appear that caracity far exceeds demand. Containers are mostly made in LD and HD noly •with some PVC. Most of the resin is s t i ll bought from European countries, cut some oolyethylene from the Gulf States has been used and more is exoected over the coming years. Hone of the factories have any technical facilities for testing of ohysical rrorerties or for checking the behaviour of the f ille d rack. i i . Survey of the Plastic Container User Industry It was not oossible to v isit many users but examination of the products on the shelves showed them to be so roor in general, that they must be very unhaopy about the Present position. Vihat discussions were held confirmed this. Since there is lit t le or no importation, clastic bottles and tubs =.11 must he made locally. - 1o -

Problems Associated with Plastic Containers a. Su alit- If reference is made to the survey of clastic containers actually being offered for sale the only conclusion tossible is that the atrearance and functional standards of Jordanian oredacts oacked in these containers is vei toor. The troducts themselves are food, but the image orojectei by the f ille d tacks surtorts the widely held view that "local troducts are no rood", hence the buying tublie continue to go for the intorted troduct. The cost glaring and constantly occurring troblem is that of tracer ink adhesion. I f the surface of the bottle is net trcoerly treated the ink w ill flake off in use giving the tack a very toor artearsnee that is not likely to in stire a oooential buyer to l i f t it o ff the shelf (unless, of course, the core oleasing alternatives are denied). The cost of treatcent is low, but the control to get it right c a lls for care in trccessinr and a ll the evidence sho;is that that care is not being exercised. Viith detergent bottles, for examtle, it is oossible to overtrear and troduce bad adhesion o f the trir.t. When locally produced goods are offered in this condition, they damage the •whole move to build ut the local industry. The next troblem is leakage due to inadequate seal between the cat and the bottle. This leads to staining of the and/or a sticky outside that ticks ut the dust, that is a real troblem in Annan, so making the troduct look filthy in a very short time. In some cases, it can be dangerous. On one occasion, the consultant tilted a bottle to read the label, and had bleach liquid tour over his hand (by sheer good luck, not on his clothes). You will often see the Jordanian troduct stuck on the bottom shelf or on the floor, the worst se llin g rosition, but i f this is lik e ly to hatter., or the attearance is one to be ashamed of, what else is the retailer to do. Dust tick-ut is not just a matter of stilt liquid on the outside of the container. Static charges that build ut on the tlastic accelerate this trocess. The addition tf antistatic agents to the tolythene can reduce this troblem, but are such agents beinr used? Pater are often lost due to toor adhesio.i to the tla stic surface, and the labels are often unvarnished which means that they scuff and oick ut dirt easily and soon look tatty. When old moulds are used, the toint at which the faces meet become worn and the join becomes very trominent. This can be unsightly, but more seriously it means that the cat cannot be a good fit and leakage often results too T T

b . Overcapacity and Attitudes

The producers of clastic containers would, in many cases, agree wholeheartedly with these comments. They w ill say that the buyers are interested in only one thing; the price. With massive overcapacity i f the suoplier industry, the buyer can go to one supplier a fte r another, pushing down the bids to levels at which the supplier who finally gets the order can only do sc by churning the containers cut, cutting every earner he can, no hold­ ups to improve, no quality control, no sorting and the raaxiimn use of reground material - anything to do the job as cheaply as passible to try to make a p ro fit (o r reduce the losses). The result - a market place with very poor looking products. The above scenario may not be s tric tly correct, but the evidence dees look that way. There are ether explanations that have been offered from time to time. One suggestion is that local producers are not interested in the future, they want big returns, quickly and let things like the slow building up of a rep­ utation for good quality and reliability wait. There is probably a lot of truth in that toe, certainly there is not too ouch evidence cf manufacturers wanting to use a technological approach so as to raise standards. The small size of the market potential is given as a reason why lit t le effort seans to be made tc make a good product.

It is very easy to criticize, and extremely difficult to change the situation. In a free society, people expect to be allowed to do what they want to dc as long as it is within the law. But perhaps societies struggling to grasp same of the benefits of industrialization would prefer seme control centrally so as to ensure that when things get out cf hard, they can be brought back under control . There appear to be too many producers of plastic containers in Jordan and a reduction in their nixnber would appear to be necessary i f companies are to be encouraged to invest on better machinery and better control over the quality of their product. But this can hardly be done by crossing names o ff the li s t . The aim in reducing the riunber of suppliers is to improve the product, therefore it seans to the consultant that perhaps the only logical way to achieve this is to make it clear that in the country's interests badly presented packs w ill not be offered for sale. That can only mean establishing agreed, and very simple, standards; in the case of plastic containers it might mean nn more than leakage rates must net exceed five per cent (say), the printed information shall not fall off and the plastic used is compatible with the product in that it s use does not endanger the health of the user. Simple requirements lik e these w ill eliminate really incompetent suppliers and accelerate the acceptance of locally produced products. Though simple, compliance c a lls fo r care in manufacture and that ccsts money, and some of the present producers w ill almost certainly prefer tc give up than meet quality standards cf even a simple nature. The huge problem is how can such standards be enforced ( i f it is - 1Q lu •_

accepted that the magnitude cf the problem and the importance of the goal of local industrial development justifies such unpleasant steps) and that is a matter fo r the administrative norms of the country. However, in the experience cf the consultant, few people take any norice cf standards un til they have to take goods back, and pur them right before re-cfferin e thee for sale. It should be menrioned here that the praorics cf big users cf making their own packaging is not as attractive an idea as it often appears to them and is not in the inrerests c f speedy development. Take fo r example the case of polystyrene cur manufacture. This is beinr cone very well indeed at the present time, the producers see themselves as specialises, take pride in th eir product and w ill be pushing fo r new markets in Jordan or fo r export. They are focussing on development and their expertise is available to any other connianins planning to use this type of packaging. They have reached a srage where they can study the implications of tackling more demanding problems. Now suppose one cf their biggest customers was tc fe e l that he could make some money by producing his own packaging; after a ll the development costs have been met, it is ju.t a matter cf putting in the same machinery. There seems tc be nc question of inadequate quality or service; if there had been the big user could switch to one cf the ether suppliers. But what happens once the new equipment comes on stream? The big user normally ignores the development of his packaging activity as long as it turns out "adequate" quality (often a quality level that he would not have tolerated before) and the machinery is run slowly into the ground without too much thought about obsolescence and reinvestment. There is no nrofit margin from which tc reinvest because the in-house packaging plant often has to supply "at cost". Criticism by the users is not welcomed because the packaging producer is now one of the family so the quality often sinks from good tc "acceptable" levels. This sequence of events and situation can be seen elsewhere, in carton manufacture for example and it is so common in can making too. Instead of expertise building, and speed of production rising and length of run increasing a ll the factors that bring down the individual cost cf a container, the available market is cut up into pieces as seen as i t looks at a ll healthy and doing a good and improving job again ceases tc be worthwhile because "there is nothing in it " . The expertise and capacity of the in-house packaging manufacture is either not available to new ccmoanies, cr the new companies are reluctant to place th eir security in the hands of a competitor making the same product, sc again growth cf new industry is limited. Developing countries would do well to consider treating the packaging industry as a separate industry with an important part to play, rather chan something chat anybody can do as a sparetime, - 19 - ancillary operation, ana lim it the production of packayiny materials and containers to companies who show that they intend to specialize in a way that leads ro a good quality product arid a desire to do even better and in a digger way. Perhaps this is one aspect that w ill be considered in Jordan because it seems very relevant tc the way things a~e gcing.

c. Standard Volumes and Shapes

An important reason why bad containers are cften mads is that moulds cost a lot of money and i f the number c f containers produced from a given mould is not expected tc be large over a reasonably short time a fte r it s accuisition, the whole cost of the mould is spread over a small number of containers. ’.7cm out moulds may be bought to overcome this high in it ia l cost problem. Moulds are almost a l l bought from European countries at the present time but there are plans tc develop the very real expertise required. It is suggested that such an enterprise would have much greater chance of success i f the range of moulds was much reduced at the same time so that each cne produced wculd be fu lly u tilized . I t wculd be a mammoth cask to introduce a range of p lastic containers suitable fc r the more commonly sold products such as shampoos, detergents, cleaning liquids, etc., but the bonus would be a substantial saving in precious resources during the in it ia l stages of development. Such an action could only be ju stifie d on a regional basis and could perhaps be helped tc success by giving tax incentives to those companies using the standard vclLfne and shaped container. Product identity would be established through colour, and label or print design rather than through shape as is so often the case at the present time. There is no disputing the importance of shape as a marketing tool but i f denied tc a l l fo r a period of five or ten years, there would be less waste. However, the problem o f what to do about the established, very characterful containers is a daunting one.

d. Technological Facilities

I t has been proposed in a number of places in this report that since the ultimate aim is to upgrade the performance of the containers in use, the only fa ir way is to eliminate those companies whose products damage the image cf the local products sc as to speed the process cf acceptance. The standards required must be clearly set forth and the methods cf test tc be used also clearly defined and readily available. But it would not be an accectable system if the equipment necessary fcr testing quality

requirements to which minimum acceptable values have been set were available only to a few. Any company who wishes to check on the performance - 20 -

of it? containers should be able to do so, especially if the perfc nance of those containers has been questioned. Since few companies can afford the test equipment or the expertise that is necessary to carry out the tests with confidence,they must have access to such equipment and expertise and be able to carry cut any tests as they think necessary. This cannot be achieved under the normal system of sending in th eir samples tc a central testing laboratory and waiting for a report cn the findings. There is a need to try new approaches tc the problem of how to introduce testing into industry in developing countries and one possible way is discussed in the section on packaging technology (Section 9)-

e. Possible Health Hazards associated with P lastic Containers

T'::h possible health hazards associated with the use of plastic containers tends tc be exaggerated, but there is a need to build up the means of safeguarding ageinst these dangers. At the present time, the p lastic resins in use come from very large producers who are familiar with the need tc reassure their customers that their products are safe in contact with food and will, in the great majority of cases, put that guarantee in writing. The fully polymerised plastics in use fo r packaging applications are not in themselves harmful. The hazards lie in the type of additives used and in the quantity of monomer left in the polymer (especially in the case of PVC and to a lesser exxent, poly­ styrene). The plasticizers, especially, must he carefully chosen so as to be from a lis t of approved substances i f contact with focd is lik e ly , and many countries use the American FGOA l i s t un til they are in a position tc establish their own lis t as a number of European countries have been able to do (an enormous task and exceedingly expensive). The nature of the substances permitted and not permitted must be known and the methods of analysis learned and practised un til proficiency is reached because occasions when these skills w ill be required will occur. However, it is obviously not possible to analyse even a small fraction of the batches of Dlastic resin coming into Jordan to see if the agreed safeguards are being met. Ncr is i t necessary to attempt it . '.That is usually required is the written guarantee of the supplier that his product does not contain harmful substances as specified on the agreed list; really there i3 no other way cf dcing it. In the case of nion omer content, the supplier should be prepared give his analysis of the level present which would be periodically checked in a central analytical laboratory. If a supplier refuses to give such guarantee or is unable to, then the user must change to cne who can and w ill give the assurances sought. In the same way a user can only insist cr, the same assurance from his converter, and again, if the converter cannot or w ill not give that assurance that his product does not contain harmful substances, than perhaps he should not be manufacturing food containers. С .4. PLASTIC FILMS АДР LAMPTATSS i. Survey of the and Laminate Manufacturing Industry At the present time, laminates are not made in Jordan. It is "believed that the possibility is being considered. Mailing laminates in which typical combinations are made between caper, aluminium fo il, , cellonhane, , nylon, , etc. etc. is a very difficult business in which to be successful. It is so easy to lose a lot of money by mistakes in the process and profit margins often do not enable these losses to be recouped very easily. In addition to th is, the volume and weight is relatively low for value of a given order which means that they can be carried long distances for relatively low additional cost which makes importing them an attractive possibility. More and more is done with polyethylene extruders in place of adhesives and you need a big market to keep such equipment operating. The potential market in Jordan w ill be very small for some time to come therefore any manufacturing venture w ill have to be soundly regionally based. On the other hand, because of the high value/low freight cost relationshio, laminates could be regarded as an export development activity worth pursuing. Plastic film blowing in Jordan is limited almost entirely tc LD and HD polyethylene ana there are very many bag makers. There are said to be ten major companies blowing film and some 40-50 small ones, i i . Survey of the Plastic Film and Laminates User Industry laminates are used principally as lidding materials for the vast numbers o f polystyrene pots that are used by the dairy products industry. Similar materials are used in overwrapoing chewing gum and as a lidding material for the PTC >' ster macks used in pharmaceutical tablet packaging. The users o f these materials say they have no problems with procurement from abroad or of a technical nature. Celloohane is imported for overwrapping, but this is being phased out and being replaced with the cheaper, but as good, polypropylene film s, i i i . Problems Associated with Plastic Films and Laminates and Development Actions The greater part of the materials used in Jordan are LD and HD polyethylene. The properties and uses of these films are well known and little help is needed in the application by industry. However, the same is not true of the more complex materials that w ill slowly be introduced such as nylon/poly and polyester/poly for , co-extruded films containing P7dC layers as barrier materials for packing meat and meat products and pre-packaging films for fruit and vegetables that control the maturing of

the product. There is a need to build up an understanding of the properties T T

- 22 - 1 of “.Me many plastics that are available today sc ss tn be in a position to advise on when and where their use can be beneficial. This is obviously a task fo r the Plastics Laboratory already established ir. the Royal Scien tific Society and no doubt it is part of their existing programme. iv. Pile Selection

An example of using an inferior film to that normally regarded as the most suitable is in the packaging of macaroni and spaghetti products. These I are offered for sale in polythene pouches formed cn a vertical form f i ll and seal machine. Polythene w ill protect the product adequately, but this product is mare usually packed in polypropylene film because it looks so much better that the increased sales more than o ffset the increase in cost. When the factory was asiced why they used polyethylene they replied that the profit margin was being kept to a level where there was no incentive to seek to expand sales. The consultant is in no position to judge the accuracy of this statement but i t was heard from enough manufacturers to fe e l that there might be some justification for it. It is certainly worth stressing that the way a product is presented on the market has a very great effect on sales and on opinion of the local Deoole as to the duality of the home produced oroducts. This factor has to be taken into account in judging what constitutes a reasonable p ro fit margin or the growth c f local industry w ill be s v ry slow a ffa ir. C o » GLASS COSTAxjiriKa i . Survey of the Glass Container Industry A* the present time there is no glass container industry in Jordan hut rich deposits of very good cuality sand have been located and clans are well under way fo r the construction of a glass container factory, i i . Survey of the Glass Container User Industry Bottles are used in large cuantities by the two breweries and by the soft drinks industry. Almost all are of the returnable kind, with a deposit system to aid recovery. Light-weight, one-trip bottles are not used. 3ottles come from Czechoslovakia, Turkey and the Lebanon and are o f excellent cuality. The three biggest users (one uses seven million bottles oer year), say they have no real problem on the fillin g lines. Two users expect approximately twelve trip s per bottle (which is very good) but the third cuotes a much lower figure. Breakages of imoorts are not serious; those coming in from Turkey come a ll the way by road and have the least breakage rate. Bottled products are exported to neighbouring countries; again breakage rate is not a problem. There is a manufacturer of Crown caps in Jordan but he supplies only part o f the market. All three users have licencing agreements with well-established companies abroad and therefore have access to first-class soecifications and technical information as required. They do not feel any need for any other technical facilities or helo. The new glass factory is expected to cater fo r their needs but is unlikely to be supplying them for several years to come. When it does, and i f the cuality is what they require, they expect the benefits to be real in the sense that local production w ill enable them to cut down on the cuantity of bottles they must carry at any ona time, with consecruent reduction in capital tied up. The growing oharmaceutical industry uses glass bottles, mostly bought from the U.K. and Ita ly . They buy from the companies standard range o f designs which enables them to buy a wide variety of sizes without high mould costs being incurred. The needs of the pharmaceutical industry are rather specialized and in the normal course of events one would not expect the new glass factory to oroduce to their needs for a very long time to come. - 2¿

i i i . Problems Associated with Glass Containers and Possible Development Actions a. Technical Hein to Industry Laboratory test equipment is available and there is a range of test methods concerned with impact resistance, thickness, glass distribution, heat shock resistance, etc. However, the techno.'ogy is very specialized and only needed by the manufacturer and the very biggest of users. It is doubtful if any attempt to provide technical assistance from a central point would be of any real value. A possible exception is in the ability to mount storage trials on products other than beer or soft drinks, which is re a lly an evaluation of the performance of the closure rather than the glass container. b. The Use of Plastic Containers Soft drinks are only sold in small glass bottles which is something o f a surprise in view of the success o f FSP (c la s tic ) containers elsewhere in the world for one and one-half and two litre sizes. For a family, the saving by buyin these large sizes is significant. More and more the smaller sizes (less than 500°!) are appearing too However, from the environmental point of view, the returnable glass container has a lot to commend it and as it is working well, there seems no point in considering clastic, despite its attraction to the rest of the Arab Region where glass container production may not be possible. The reason why larger bottles are not on sale does need looking at; perhaps there is good reason. c. Limit on Profit Margins The biggest problem said to be facing the soft drink industry at the present time is that the upper sale erice of the drinks has been set by the Government at a level that leaves an inadequate profit margin for stability and growth. This is not something in which the consultant feels he has any part to play, but since a number of companies expressed the view that development and improvement were impossible at the present permitted profit margins, i t has to be recorded as a problem. d. Glass Containers for Beer 3eer is being sold in rio-top cans in greater and greater quantities (about six million cans per year at the present rate). It is an excellent pack and it i 3 what the public wants. It is also an excellent export container. The only cuestión is that since Jordan is actively developing a glass container industry, would it be in Jordan’s best interests to be committed to a type of pack that must always be imported at high cost? r T

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Light-weight glass bottles are used by some of the best breweries in the world as one-trio containers; i f a gradual move towards this tyoe of container was to be encouraged over the next few years, it could be well established as the preferred container by the time the local glass container factory is in a position to consider manufacture (oerhaos as an eroort item as well as for the home market). Recovery o f glass containers for has been one c f the most successful of those tried and the new glass factory will be able to absorb all the scrap glass (cullet) that can be collected. This ooirt is further considered in the section on waste recovery. Another point to consider is the question of colour of glass. A glass furnace holds a great eruantity of glass and changing from one colour to another, or to clear, is a vast and expensive operation. So as much as oossible the need for this has to be avoided. Large-scale users stand to benefit from having the same colour glass if they are to buy from the local oroducer but beer is sold in both green and brown bottles in Jordan. The colour o f a bottle can be a most important marketing ooint to a company and any changes must be very gradual so as not to damage their market image, but some thought should be given now to this question, years before it may become a necessity ( i f the foreign exchange cannot be made available for imported bottles in say five years' time), e. Glass as a Food Container The can is an excellent food container and if tinolate (or tm-free steel plate) becomes available freely in the Arab Region, then it w ill orobably continue to be the principal method of sellin g preserved foods to the general oublic for many years to come. (Sterilizable plastic containers and their oossibilities are discussed elsewhere.) However, glass can do many of the things that a can can do and has persisted as a viable pack long after its demise was forecast because of the threat of plastic containers being so much better for supermarket sales. Of course glass is mostly successful when the product Deing offered for sale is attractive in apoearance and being able to see it is a marketing olus factor, e.g. olives, oickled fish, beetroot, etc. The re-close and re-use value of the glass container has been very important in such nroducts as coffee oowder, snices etc., oluc of course, the excellent protective qualities of glass containers. If Jordan is to have a viable glass container factory in the future, then special study would be worthwhile to promote the use of glass in as many forms of food packaging as is possible so that the public gradually accepts it as the norm and not an exotic substitute for the can. At least one leading figure in the long-term forecasting of materials and containers predominating in the future has selected glass, because it is a raw material in abundance, oerhaos the only one. Y T

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f. Closures for Plastic and Glass Containers The performance of these two types of containers is so often the performance of the closure. Its strength and perfection of fit to the container itself is of paramount importance, which is why buyers prefer it when they can buy the container and the closure from the same manufacturer. Making good closures is a very skilled business and not just a question of getting a mould and churning it out as an alternative to toys or household utensils. Consideration should be given to combining a specialist closure factory with the glass container factory to ensure that the combined product has the highest reputation and the future buyers do not find themselves le ft holding the baby fo r bad containers because the two companies involved are blaming each other. A joint exercise with an established closure maker would seem a good way of injecting the right know-how from the beginning. Closures make a good exoort possibility too, because they are small but specialized types such as tear strip, tamperproof, childoroof, etc. have reasonable value. g. The Re-use of Glass Containers A number of small manufacturers recover 3auce, wine, mineral water and soft drink glass bottles, clean them and use them to sell their own oroducts on a small scale, e.g. vinegar and acetic acid. There is nothing fundamentally wrong in that, in fact, the saving on resources is to he commended. However, invariably the cheapest and nastiest, unvarnished label is attached hearing almost no information as to manufacturer, contents, weight, etc. The label cuickly becomes scuffed and tatty looking and the prevailing idea that !,if it is local, it is no nanw good” is given visual support. Tet the oroduct might be quite good, and a bargain compared to the imported kinds offered on the shelves alongside them. It is not enough to legislate the competition off the shelves, the oublic are entitled to clean, well-presented products that reflect that the manufacturer does respect their taste and standards. Some countries insist that all labels must he varnished, a minute increase in cost to the producer, but a major improvement in the apoearance of the local goods offered for sale. Peonle who maintain that it doesn't matter what a product looks lik e, it is the nnce that matters had better talk to the people who make their living selling oroducts to the public. They w ill explain that people buy the imoorted goods, mostly because they look better and in buying what appears the best, they feel better in themselves. The local manufacturers take a long time to aopreciate that they have to persuade people to buy their oroduct in oreferer.ee to another, often oreferring to appeal for the elimination of the opposition instead. Achieving this state i 3 largely a matter of promotion by such bodies as The Chamber of Industry, The Chamber of Commerce, specialist associations concerned with promoting the well-being of the packaging and manufacturing industries, exoort3 etc. It is suggested, that a monitoring of the condition of packaged goods offered for sale such as wa3 carried out for tni3 survey, and the circulation of the results on a regular basis to the bodies mentioned above would heIn a lit t le in the drive to make local goods more acceptable and better value than imported alternatives. - 27 -

C.6. METAL CCNTAINSR5

i . Survey of the Gan Making Industry

In Jcrdan there are specialist manufacturers of metal containers and there are fcod manufacturers who make th eir own cans. None have know-how agreements with companies abroad. Tinplate is brought in from Japan, U.K. and. Prance, and a small quantity from Gajair (?), a source within the Arab Region. No tin-free steel is used and in general cans are made from stock metal sheet sizes which can be rather wasteful. The usage fo r two o f the biggest converters is in the order of d,030 tons of tinplate per year. Several companies import ready printed sheets; only one of the converters has printing facilities. All inks are imported from the U.K. and Denmark. No lac rue ring’ is carried out in Jordan; whe this is required, the sheets are imported ready-coated. Most of the cans from the specialist can makers go to the paint industry in sizes of one, one-half, one-quarter, one-eighth and one-siateenth US gallons. They are the traditional lever lid tyre. One can maker also makes Orovm cans ai.d aerosol cans, many of these for the export market.

Of the two fcod manufacturers making cans, one has been in production fo r some years and the ether has a new line just coming on stream. The established company concentrates on tomato paste but also cans vegetables as they become available, the ether company makes just one size of can and at the moment limits production to five tyoes of vegetables.

i i . Survey of the Metal Can User Industry

The paint industry takes a lot of cans arid there is no reason to believe that they are dissatisfied. Selling canned goods in Jcrdan is said to be very d iffic u lt and only slowly building up. Up to recently, large quantities of mada-up cans '.vers brought into the country from Greece which is very undesirable because of the high freight costs. There were few problems with the cans, however. Lithographed cans tend to be widely used in Jordan, which is rather surprising for such small production quantities, but re tailers do have special problems in keeping th eir products locking attractive. Dust must be wiped periodically from the surface of the can and a paper label can aocn become tatty looking. I f the labels were varnished w ell, the need for printed cans may be reduced; at present many of the paper labels have no varnish protection at all. The use of cans for beer is increasing raoidiy; at present it is about one-half million cans per month. Two and three-piece cans are used, made from tinplate and aluminium, a ll imported ready made uo which is a very expensive operation. All cans have a tear strip too. . Problems Associabed with Metal Containers and Possible Development Actions a. Canned Beer There is no doubt that the can is an excellent pack and it helps to sell beer. It is also a very good pack in which to export beer which is seen as the only way that the two local companies can grow to any significant extent. The beer can is very difficult to make, any weakness to the^laccuer quickly causing problems. Both companies have access to the expertise of long- established companies and have few technical problems in getting a good product onto the market. I f there are any problems about this trend, they lie in what might be best for Jordan rather than fo r the company. To go on importing more set-up cans is very wasteful in foreign exchange and the usual hope is that when imported ouantities become large enough, local manufacture is considered, but that is unlikely to be the case for the popular two-piece can. A single manufacturing line costs between m illion and 3 m illion JDS depending on the type, and the output from such a line is usually between 150 million and 250 million cans per year, because to keep the cost of each can in reasonable limits, the line has to be run twenty shifts per week. Jordan is unlikely to need anything like that capacity, ana making far fewer cans than the capacity means very expensive cans. Using three-piece cans is a possibility, but they are difficult to make too. The question is , is it a l l worth it? Is the can the right pack to develop for Jordan and the other Arab countries? What other options are open? One possibility is the light-weight, glass, one-trip bottle. This is very widely used for export by some of the world's best breweries and in a few years' time they can be made in Jordan. This point is discussed under glass containers. b. Food The most striking point about food canning in Jordan is the apparent absence of can technology. The RSS can help with some tests on the physical properties of the tinplate being used, but making food cans needs good know-how and good cuality control procedures. In the consultant's experience of many other developing countries, this expertise is either provided by can factories that are part of a multinational organization, or the local can maker has the benefit of a know-how agreement with an experienced company who teaches the local staff the correct procedures and advises on specifications for different products. In the absence of either of these methods, there should be evidence that the s ta ff of the factory making the cans re a lly know what they are doing and the product should be 3een to be good. Unfortunate] y, that does not appear to be the case in Jordan. During the - 29 - consultant's v isits tc tiis siissnsarkets to Jordanian produces a. the point of s a ls .it was noticed that the tomato paste cans were often leaking and were badly dented. Blown cans were quite common. 3n occasions f i f t y oer cent of the cans were contaminated cn the outside and customers have been seen sorting through a p ile of cans to pick out sane good ones. This is not to say that fifty oer cent of the cans were leaking but each leaker can ruin the appearance cf many mere, raising dcubts as to tha can's security. The / consultant asked several shop-keepers why they offered such "unsaleable" goods and received the reply that there was l i t t le they could dc as the return of faulty cans for refund was not possible. If this is really the esse, it is a really depressing state of affairs, especially as it is apparently not possible to buy from other sources. This point needs tc be vigorously followed up as there appears to be a real health hazard. One o ' the can makers at present making paint cans, would lik e to enter the feed can market but is worried about the technical problems involved. Consideration must be given to limiting food can production to one specialized company that fas a know-how agreement with an experienced can making company, perhaps in the form of a join t venture. In this way the can maker can become a centre cf expertise, guiding the can u rs in correct procedures. It would be unfortunate if the available market was to go cn being sub-divided, each sub-division limiting the potential for growth in techrical know-hew and a b ility tc g?'•■= technical back-up to customers. The consultant fee ls that a thorough examination of the present situation is needed by a can expert tc establish what quality control procedures should be made mandatory in any factory producing canned fcods and in what ways a centrally based technical facility can help. It is very easy to say that what is needed is a central laboratory with one or two knowledgeable people who can assist with the problems facing industrialists. But unfortunately, when such people appear it is not long before an attractive offer from local industry puts the central laboratory back to where i t was before the s t a ff member became experienced enough tc inspire industry that he really could help. This is not only the case with canning, it applies tc all the specialities, plastics, glass, paper and board, etc. This serious problem is futher examined in the section cn the introduction cf packaging technology into industry (section 9)- - 30 - c. Cost Reduction There are some specific points that need examination since they could lead to lowering the orice o f cans. Only tinolate is used at the present time and there are tin -free steels, e.g. Hi Toe which has chromium/chromium oxide that can he used successfully especially for can ends. In addition, the present level of tin on plate being used could probably be reduced, especially when the can is printed and lacruered. All tinplate used is too ruality, but seconds (known as unmended menders) can be used with confidence in many cases. The composition o f the solder in use needs to be examined to see i f mixtures with less tin can be used. Vfith tin at £6,500 per ton and lead at £400 per ton, a shift of only five per cent can represent a lot of money saved. Buying standard sized sheets and then cutting different sizes from it often means wastage of valuable tinolate; there is a need to increase the run length so that the optimum sheet size fo r each can size can be bought. Changeover to a different can size is expensive and consideration should be given to lim iting the number o f sizes of cans that are permitted. d. Toxicity Levels fo r Lead and Tin In European countries there is a great deal o f concern about the harmful amounts of lead in canned foods and the permitted levels are being brought down to very low values. The lead often gets into the food from splashes of solder thrown into the can body at the manufacturing stage and great care is required. The necessary standard test methods should be established and the Analytical Section of the RSS should be able to carry out analyses fo r these heavy metals as reouired. One o f the great attractions of welding side seams as against soldering for side seaming is that the lead content problem is completely avoided. c.7. WOODSg 30X5S i . Survey of the Manufacturing Industry The wooden hoi industry in Jordan is very well developed indeed in two factories. The fir s t is largely concerned with the on-site grading and packing o f fruit and vegetable products, mostly for exoort to Syria, the Lebanon, Irac and the Gulf States. They make a olywood, nailed box on two semi-automatic box making lines in stalled a year ago and another two machines are to be brought into production shortly bringing the output capacity to 50*000 boxes per day. Boxes take ten and twenty kilograms of product. The plywood used comes from Soain and Holland and arrives ready-cut. The boxes are very well made and no real oroblems are experienced on the lines excent fo r occasional dimensional variation. The second factory makes wirebound boxes on a semi-automatic line. It started orodu' tion ir. 1979» The ready-cut, hardboard ends come from Rumania and the beechwood from Turkey, Portugal and Yugoslavia. Wire comes from China, Rumania, Prance or Belgium. They use about 5,000 cubic metres of wood per year. The wirebound box factory is running well below capacity, only one shift oer day producing in the order of six million boxes per year. There is an ample supply of good, wooden boxes in Jordan, i i . Survey o f the Wooden Box User Industry Wooden boxes are used almost entirely fo r the export of fru it and vegetables by road to neighbouring Arab States. The roughness of the transit conditions makes this preferred to the corrugated case. An eventual usage of fifteen million boxes per year is foreseen. The difficulties being faced in getting standardized fresh fruit to the market place in Jordan are very great, but the containers should not present any real problems. i i i . Problems Associated with the Wooden Box Industry and Development Actions a. Import Duty The wirebound box maker feels that his biggest single problem is that he has to pay 21 per cent customs duty on wood, 32 per cent customs duty cn hardboard and 33 per cent duty on wire, and at the same time compete on price with the other manufacturer who pays no duty because of Government ownership. b . Dimensions The dimensions of the boxes are as recommended by the Arab League Standards Organization, which are believed to be 48Cmm x 270mm x 250nm and 430mm x 300mm x 150mm. These were chosen so as to f it the 1,200mm x l,C00mm - 32 - . Unfortunately, there is resistance to having a standardised box size by some users and other sizes have to he made to satisfy their demands. There is apparently a case for clarify in g this issue, perhaps with a view to making it mandatory. At the oresent time the weight of the filled container is not standardized and this causes Problems with overfilling (to please the customer) but which in turn leads to unnecessarily high damage to the fru it. It is also a surprise that the height has been aoparently standardized. The main ourposes o f standardizing such containers is to ensure that the best use is made of oallets and transport vehicle available volume, in which case it is re a lly only necessary to standardize the base dimensions. Since the volume of a given fru it w ill vary throughout the year, and since the volume c f different fru its vary, the user re a lly needs to vary the height of the box so as to get the maximum value each time. The fruit and vegetable export market is a highly competitive one and using the volume of the shiooing vehicle to the absolute maximum is of paramount importance. I t is also suggested that the ultimate aim in standardizing the amount of fruit sold in each container will be its weight, or the number of individual fruits, there­ fore the exporter must have something he can vary - and that something should be the height of the container. c. The Use of Corrugated Box Containers for Fruit and Vegetables The wooden boxes being used for exports at the present time appear to be doing an excellent job. However, it should be borne in mind that a most important export potential is air-freigh tin g fresh fru it and vegetables to the market that w ill pay the best at any given time. Wooden containers are not really suited to this kind of activity, therefore some experimentation with the use of corn. ed containers for fru it and vegetable packaging is urged so that when the opportunity presents it s e lf the choice is not lost either because the corrugated containers are not available or the kind used fail to an extent that the potential market is closed for some time after. - n -

C .S * PA®® SA.CK3 A!7D WfWiTT ptz c^T r 34 . Kultiwall Paoer Sacks There is one company making oaoer sacks in Jordan. The company has no know-how agreement with other companies but does obtain a lot of technical help from the Scandinavian suppliers of Kraft. The building was completed in '979* Training of local s ta ff in operating orocedures took uo to 1980. Existing ecuipment, which is modem and appears to be of very good cuality, has a eaoacity of fifteen million sacks oer shift per year (potential of over 30 million sacks per year). In 1980 they sold some six million sacks, in 1981 some four million and so far in 1982 they have sold eight million. This is a small percentage o f the oresent total usage in Jordan which is in the order of 20-25 m illion. The estimated market for 1985 is 150 million sacks based on the likely cement tonnage from the planned factories (note: a proportion of that new tonnage w ill almost certainly go into intermediate bulk containers). In addition to cement, there is considerable potential for the animal feed, calcium carbonate, and possibly fertilizer industries. One of their problems is that they are competing with sacks imported from countries with long experience in sack production and these sacks are exempted from tax. The kraft fo r lo c a lly produced sacks is exempted from tax too, but adhesives are charged 30 per cent import duty, and the printing inks 40 to 50 oer cent import duty. They estimate that this extra duty makes a difference of USS 3-5 ^er 1»000 sacks which is a factor adversely affecting their competitiveness. Jordan Cement Factory is said to use some eighteen million sacks per year

at the present time and companies in Acuaba make up the balance. It appeared from discussion that thp quantities at present being supplied are not yet b ig enough to allow them to use their machines e ffic ie n tly as they are hardly fillin g one shift and to get value for money from such installations they would need to run two sh ifts. I f this was the case, plus removal of the extra import duty, they are confident that they could compete on price despite the advantages experienced by long-established companies, some of whom have an integrated supply of kraft. The Jordan Cement Co. is 50 per cent owned by the Government. The ultimate test as to whether the local product is technically adenuate is under actual fillin g and use conditions. However, this is not an easy thing to verify. They agree that pre-testing of the materials and the sacks would play a role but they are only in a position to check basis weight, burst, tensile and thickness at the oresent time. Relevant tests would be: ten sile, stretch at break, tensile energy absorption, tear, porosity and moisture content

of the paper. In theory RSS are in a position to carry out these tests now, but in - 3d -

practice arranging the tests is a tirae-consuning and expensive operation and they have not felt that the costs cf such tests can he justified in terns of return. Drop tests are highly relevant for this kind of product, especially when evaluating the potential of from new sources. I t was understood that an additional problem is that the factory's a c tiv itie s may be res t r i cted an environmental grounds due tc the existence of underground water supplies in the area. The activity o f sack making would not normally be associated with pollution hazards and i f the factory was not permitted tc use the space it already- has available -co increase its production to more viable levels, then the future cf the operation could be seriously affected. Care with the disposal of excess and ink would appear to be necessary but as these are expensive items, the quantities involved are usually quite small. The impression obtained was certainly one that the factory's effo rts to succeed were being hankered rather than helped as one would expect in such a development. However, it comes back to the question of being able to show that the product is good enough to replace imported ones. The idea of carrying out tests in the presence of industrial personnel was discussed and i t was fe lt that the idea was worth further study. The is s t ill the preferred method of oackagi ig cement and it would appear that it was in Jordan's interests to suonort the develooment of this industry. Perhaps protection sim ilar to that being given to the corrugated box industry would be appropriate, in that local users are obliged to buy a percentage of th eir needs from local suppliers (unless i t can be shown that by doing so the v ia b ility o f th eir own product is endangered). The expenditure on imported sacks per year is already being measured in millions of JD.S . It is in Jordan's interest that as much of that as possible is spent within Jordan.

i i . '.'.'over. Plastic 5acks There is one manufacturer cf p lastic, woven sacks in Jordan, and they are available in 450mm, 53Gmm and 500mm widths. The thickness is 25u. The factory has excess capacity, selling two million sacks out of a maximum output of three m illion. 3xport potential is not good. Principal uses are flo u r, animal feedstuff, phosphates and other chemicals. Resin is imported from Holland and the U.K. and they say they have no problems. The potential usage in Jorcb.i is very large, especially when the new flo u r mills are in fu ll operation, and they have requested permission to install more machinery tc meet this need. One of their biggest problems is that when orders are placed, the entire quantity is required at once. This makes planning very difficult and production could be much more efficien t i f customers would take their sacks at a steady weekly or monthly rate ( i s is the normal case). - 35 - c.3 The Introduction of Packa~ing Technology into Jordanian Industry Once it is accented that improved packaging can be neloful both to domestic growth and, in particular, to the mrowth of export of manufactured roods, the ouestion to be decided is how can packaging technology be used as a tool to bring about such improvements. How can it help industry to ret more efficien t usage out of existing and new machinery: how can the performance o f containers be imoroved and how can the growing legislation in many importing countries that is concerned with packaging be adecuately met so as not to become a barrier to trade with them. It is to be emphasized that the aim is to help industry bring about improvements rather than to use scientific testing to set standards that may be unreasonably high for the oresent level of development of local industry. The aim is to bring Jordanian Products to a level at which they can compete with the products of other countries when offered for sale in Jordan or in target markets. i The Conventional Approach to Introducing Packaging Technology Packaging technology is based on the a b ility xo measure the physical proper Lies and in some cases, the chemical properties, of the materials and containers being used so that differences between satisfactory levels and unsatisfactory levels car be clearly identified and the magnitude of that difference established. It is then possible to monitor the effect of improvements

tried during the process of bringing up the performance to acceptable levels. Reference to the lists of test equipment given in Annex 3 and Annex d will give an overall view of the ranсe of properties involved. It is ruite impossible for the majority of companies in Jordan to -accuire the necessary test equipment and to accuire the kind of expertise necessary in the operation of the test ecuiomer.t and in the interpretation of the results. The cost is too high and the cost benefits in the immediate future are not high enough because of the small markets involved in most cases. As with most developing countries the process of introducing packaging technology into local industry has to start with a centrally located laboratory. A fu lly fledged packaging centre such as is to be found in many industrialized countries would o ffer the following range of activities: a. Scientific testing facilities: b. Information; c. Promotion; d. Training; e, Research and development, a. Scientific Testinr Facilities In terns of scientific testing facilities, Jordan has .Iread.y established a laboratory in the Roya) Scientific Society and other labors ories related to packaging are : the paper and packaging laboratory, the ola tic s laboratory, the metallurgical laboratory, the microbiological section, th° aboratorv for chemical

analvris and the laboratories -associated ■■nth testing orr'ri "1 "'TO pe r t 1 es . At some time or other investigations into packaging problems r e t i r e the help of many of the above specialities. The earner and packaging laooratory already has cuite a wide range of test ecmioment available to it . A lis t is given in Annex 3. Discussions were held on three occasions with members of the staff of this laboratory and the related ones and a list of additional equipment that would extend the range of activities of this laboratory is given in Annex 4. The main contribution of any laboratory cf this type is to be able to accurately measure physical properties with a view to: 1) Establishing differences between materials that have been found in practice to be satisfactory and those that have been found in practice to be unsatisfactory so that attention can be focussed on the uroperties involved. 2) Being able to measure the properties under controlled conditions orovides the tool for monitoring the effects being produced by changes on the manufacturing equipment or monitoring the improvements that are being achieved under say transit conditions or under storage conditions. 3) Establishing buying specifications that describe what is necessary fo r a company to achieve satisfactory performance from its raw materials, or in the establishment of product specifications. To be able to do this means working out the necessary quality control tests and their introduction accomplished. There are several hundred tests that can be done; the v ita l factor fo r success is to be able to select the few that are worth doing on a given occasion. 4) The identification o f materials being used in sim ilar packs can be a very helpful service to the industry. b. Information When the packaging laboratory staff and the technical staff from industry want to carry out a special investigation into a packaging tooic they must have access to information on that tooic, be it problems o f machine performance, the possible benefits or hazards of using a given material for a certain application, the type o f ecuipment used fo r test purposes, the tyoe o f machinery and orocesses used in manufacturing a c tiv itie s. Such information can be very expensive and must be well documented i f it is to be retrieved rarid ly and successfully when needed. It is usual to centralize such information and the facilities for this already exist in the RSS which would appear the logical point for focussing the development of any improved fa c ilit ie s concerning information on packaging technology. c. Promotion Although this can be done by a central packaging laboratory, it is much

better done by am entirely separate association which is normally - 37 - mads up by those canpanies "ha manufacture materials and containers and those canpanies who are very large users of packaging materials and containers, e.g. the focd industry', the pharmaceutical industry and the household products industry. It is generally very much in their interests tc promote the availability of better packaging within the country and to increase the awareness cf the important rcle that packaging plays in the development of sales especially in the export led industries.

d. Training If the instrumentation and expertise for scientific testing is centred in one particular point, in the early development of a country's industry for economic reasons, then that laboratory must be involved in a training programme for the technical staff of the local manufacturing and user industries. This is necessary if the technical staff are going to appreciate the facilities available and understand how they can benefit fran the services that the laboratory is offering. The usual way is by seminars from one day to a week or more. They may be general in future or they may be focussing on a specific part of one industry» It is a feature of this training that the specialists fran within the industry it s e lf are concerned in the preparation and presentation of these training courses. It should also be noted that training courses in packaging technology are better run at the pace cf one or two hours per day than intensive courses lasting a l l day. These hours can either be in the morning, overlapping the normal starting hours of the lo c al industry, or be held in the evenings when participants do net need permission to be absent from their place of work. There are also w ell-established correspondence courses, one cf which is run by the British Institute of Packaging and has students from a ll over the world. It is ouite possible to base a training course on th is correspondence course with tie people taking the training meeting periodically for a kind of tutorial rather than formal tuition at which they can exchange ideas and sources of information and discuss their learning problems with experienced people.

e . Research and Development

There is a tendency fo r a l l newly qualified science graduates to focus on the research aspects cf the work rather than to provide a testing service that is concerned more with the application of well-established knowledge to the problems of local industry. This is a very natural phenomenon but i t is not a very helpful one when a country is struggling in the early stages of industrial- ization. The amount of information available co anyone working in packaging tech­ nology is overwhe?ming and the oossibility of a small laboratory with very limited resources making any worthwhile contribution tc the packaging scene in terms of basic research is extremely unlikely. - }3 -

There are, however, very many difficulties in adapting established technology zz local conditions and in just understanding which parts of that mass of information are relevant and helpful to resolving a problsn at any given time. It is therefore urged that the very term 'research* be eliminated and the whole saphasis be placed cn development fo r at least the foreseeable future. In the conventional approach, the technological centre would be carrying out the necessary technical work to back up investigations in industry or for the development of suitable standards. Since the funds available to technological institutes are s tric tly limited, the nunber of people who can work in any pacteging technical centre is always strictly limited. It can often be no more than two graduates and three or four laboratory assistants in a developing country envirorment. In a small country the anployment o f four or five graduates in such a section would be regarded as a very large investment indeed, and this can be said to be true fe r even median sized developing countries. I t is not reasonable to draw comparisons with the packaging institutions in highly industrialized countri es where there may be hundreds o f people gain fully employed. It is very important fo r the development of Jordanian products that they can compete in the future against the far better presented imports. 2ut the restriction of those imports should re a lly only be made when the local product is a fa ir match fer them, or the local product is going to rapidly achieve a reasonable standard. It would sesn reasonable that the functional properties of the products offered for sale should be satisfactory. Cartons of detergent powder should not deposit their contents on the shelves, tins of tomato paste must contain the product every time, p lastic bottles should not leak th eir contents etc. etc. It is essential that the existing belief that the local product is nn good is changed. It takes years to achieve this but many countries have done it. The packaging manufacturing companies have a lo t c f problems to contend with. Often they are struggling with unsuitable equipment because the size of the market does not ju stify high capital investment or the future is too uncertain to wait for what is regarded in other environments as a reasonable time fo r a return on that investment. The survey results contained in Annex 2 leave one in no doubt that improvements are very necessary and a good packaging laboratory can help achieve this. Tha main question is how best can the limited resources be used to bring this about. Will the conventional approach of a very small staff in a packaging laboratory' really make an impact on the present situation. To answer that question i t is possible to draw on the experience of a nunber cf new laboratories in developing countries and look at the problems they have had to face. - 39 - i i . The Li ait at iocs of the Conventional Abroach to Introducing Packaging Technology . a. 5erne of the problans that limit the effectiveness of a centralised laboratory are as fellows: There w ill have to he a strict limit on the number of staff members in the laboratory, yet the range of knowledge required and the sk ills required are very wide. The technology of the various industries is quite different, i.e . in cans, glass, plastics paper and board and the c crop lex laminates and co—extruded film that are becoming very cannon. Specialization is difficult and although the laboratory staff can become skilled in the use of their test equipment, it is very difficult fer them to actually give the results any meaning. Results frem laboratory test equipment have lit t le meaning until they have been applied repeatedly to what happens in practice cn a given machine or in a given user situation. It is only b j the constant comparisons between satisfactory and unsatisfactory materials and containers that the optimum level can be established and the laboratory staff can never have the time or the opportunity to spend time in the industry its e lf close to the centre of a given problem to really grasp the relationship between the test results obtained and the performance of the material or container in practice. It is ecuelly true that technical staff from within industry, technical managers, production managers, works engineers, production engineers, etc. with responsibilities for the packaging side of the companies activities have lit t le opportunity to become familiar with the nature of the tests that can be dene in a packaging laboratory and to recognize on those occasions when they have problems, which tests cculd provide evidence on which they could base remedial action. Another reason for this is that packaging is somewhat different to other technical subjects in that a figure can often not describe what happened during the tests and the person Interpreting the results very often has to see the test being carried out making comparisons between satisfactory and unsatisfactory materials i f he, or she, is to get a lead as to what might bs the cause of the problem from a manufacturing or user point of view. For instance it is quite d ifficu lt to describe rub resistance results or to describe the behaviour of a bond when it is ruptured on the tensile test equipment, which is often mere valuable than the actual value of the figure recorded. The behaviour cf a corrug­ ated case while it is being transit-tested can sometimes give mors information than the values that are reported. This is certainly true when it cernes to testing where a judgement must be made as to the state cf the product at ary given time, and -whether that state is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. These kinds cf decisions can really only be made by the product manufacturer because obey are concerned with the target market and a ii Chat that implies. In other words, for really effective benefits from testing activities, the person who is most involved in seeking information on what changes he is to make in materials or processes has to be present during the testing process, at least until his comprehension of the meaning of the results of the test is so well developed that figures can give him a clear indication of what actually happened during the testing process. Under the present system samples are sent to the central laboratory and, after what is so often a considerable length of time, a written report is sent by that laboratory to him. This may well work quite satisfactoril with microbiological testing, chemical analysis or strengths of building materials etc. but it has strictly limited effects in packaging. b. Speed When the manufacturer or user is faced with a problem he often has to taoce some sort of action within hours and therefore if the results of scientific testing are to be one o f the factors that has to be taken into account, those results have to be available in a matter of hours. Centralized laboratories by their very nature are often unable to produce results within days, often within weeks. Part o f the reason fo r this is that i f a written report is to be supplied, it must be checked and cross-checked tc ensure that no inaccuracies have been made and that the results have been presented in a way which is clear yet indicates the limitations of the conclusions that may have been reached. Samples are often inadequate in number and are often not even representative, but this is a fact of life that technical staff in industry have to live with but people used to the laboratory environment find this very difficult to accept. It is this lack of rapid feedback that is the greatest reason why industries in developing countries tend not to use testing laboratories (centralized ones, that is ) when struggling with their technological problems. Some means o f changing this "normal” situation has to be sought. c. Cost Scientific testing is not cheap, no matter how you do it , but the thing that upsets industry most is that they have no real idea what they are paying for. They send in a series of samples and they get the results - and a b ill which cuite often they find high. Naturally their enthusiasm for sending in large numbers o f samples is considerably reduced and yet so often large numbers of samples have to be examined i f progress is to be made with a given problem- Unfortunately, quite a high proportion of the cost in testing in a centralized institution is to do with the overheads concerned with the process of report preparation. The tine spent by a skilled graduate in preparing hi3 report, submitting it to his superiors (when the necessary retynings have been carried out of course), and adjusting that report to brinr it into line •.■.lah the suggestions and criticisms of the more senior members of the organization means that pop ot.1t is ti~ ° eloosin ' but the cost ir.vcl'*ed is climbin-"* s t e a iil” too- Another factor in costing is the extent of testing that may be necessary. When a technologist is supervising the testing and he has a thorough knowledge of the oroblem, he can ruickly abort a testing programme which is obviously not following the kind of pattern that was expected. He can change direction, he can act upon an observation that has given him a lead to a course of investigation that had not previously been thought about. When testing is carried out in a laboratory without any benefits of that background information, such things are not possible; it is necessary to go through the whole pre­ arranged testing programme following up a large number of variables and each testing programme must he carried out very carefully - cuick "siting shots" are only oossible when you are thoroughly involved with the problem. The company involved may not feel that the costs are justified, especially as they often cannot know in advance what that expense is going to be. d. Confidentiality When a manufacturing or a user company has problems with the performance of a material or a container, they rarely want this to become common knowledge throughout the industry and to be available to their competitors and customers. They need to move quickly to overcome the problem to see that no damage is done to their reputation (at least this is what we want to happen). The reassurance so often given by central testing laboratories that all work that they do is confidential is not accepted by the majority of industry personnel. It is not accepted for the very good reason that one of the benefits of a centralized laboratory is that the specialized knowledge and skills available have been acquired by studying the problems that exist in other parts of the industry and the human beings Involved in that process do pass on information about what they have seen, even though they may well do it unintentionally. Many manufacturers feel that when they are investigating a knoiim weakness the concrete evidence that they are acquiring about that weakness should be stric tly confidential to them and also since they are spending money investigating the problem, the benefits that accrue from the . ork should he available only to them, which is not an unreasonable attitude. e. Utilization of Capital Invested The instrumentation is a good packaging laboratory and can cost in excess of USS 200,000. The number of workers within that laboratory w ill always be fairly small and tnis can only lead to gross under-utilization of this high cani'cal investment. Some means of getting much more return from this investment has to be tried. Much of the test equipment in laboratories is hardly used on a weekly basis. These then are the problems and the reasons why any new laboratory specializing in packaging technology w ill find it very d ifficu lt to make an effective impact on the problems in industry. It is therefore important to consider very seriously any alternative means that may help, i i i . An Extension to the Conventional Mode of Operation of a Packaging Laboratory It is important to stress that the ideas put forward in this next section in no way alter the work of the permanent sta ff of the laboratory. The proposals are aimed at increasing the effective size of the staff without the intolerable costs that would normally be involved. A ll of the activities described in the first section are retained. It is suggested that a lot of the problems described in section i i can be considerably reduced and the impact of the laboratory greatly increased i f technical staff from the various industries are trained in the use and potential applications of the test instruments available in the packaging laboratory and from then on are allowed access to the laboratory with a view to supervising their own test programmes. Effectively the staff using the facilities could be raised from a maximum of z;;c or three graduates to a potential of 2C to 30 graduate as the technological base of the local industry imorcves with time. Such a move brings with it administrative problems but it is suggested that these are no greater (and orobably less) than the administrative problems being faced every day by even the smallest of the local manufacturing conroanies and therefore should not be regarded as a reason why the technical staff from industry should not be allowed into the laboratory. Let us look therefore at the benefits that may be expected i f such an approach was adopted. a. Since only technical personnel from industry who have been through a prepared training course in the laboratory are involved, we have am immediate improvement. The technical personnel from industry are now very familiar with the ways in which the test ecruioment is utilized and in what applications the test can be helpful. They are therefore better able to recognize situations in their own working environment where scientific testing cam contribute. They know how to phrase recuests, even i f they do not take advantage of the oossibility of being present and supervising the actual tests. b. What is visualized is that the technical man from industry when faced with a situation where testing of physical oroperties can be helpful will phone through to the laboratory and effectively book operating tine on the equipment he is likely to need. That time should be reserved for him and a laboratory assistant assigned to him to operate the equipment as he requires it. In this way, results can be available in - ¿3 - hours i f the ecuipment happened to "be free at that particular time and since no formal reporting procedure is now necessary, the time can he reduced to probably a third of that o rigin ally recuired. The technical member can return to his problem hopefully armed with information on which to make a decision as to a possible course of action. In time, as his knowledge o f the testing conditions and the relationship between these and the results becomes much clearer to him he w ill tend to send in samples fo r testing rather than coming himself. c. Since under this system, it is no longer necessary to explain anything about the background to the tests, confidentiality has been assured. The only results are those the industrial member brought away with him, no copies are left and the company can be confident that they have kept control over their affairs. The relatively minor loss of confidentiality in that the tests are being carried out in an open laboratory is rarely a problem, but i f it was then perhaps special arrangements could be made to overcome this on the odd occasion that it mattered. It might be argued that this lack of information le ft in the laboratory records is a disadvantage, and this is true. However, the fact that these are not available does not in any way lim it the scope and depth of the work which the permanent members of s ta ff are carrying out in the course of their normal work. It is fu lly expected that i f this method of operating is successful, then the number of companies prepared to send in samples for testing because they have found the technological approach useful will increase with tine and the full-time members of the laboratory w ill have ample results available to them. d. It it envisaged in the section dealing with financial considerations that technical members from industry w ill pay a fee for the number of hours they are in the laboratory irrespective o f the nature of the work they are carrying out. It is envisaged that they will sign in and sign out and at the end of the month the number of hours in which they have availed themselves of the fa c ilit ie s w ill be added up and a charge made to the company accordingly. Adjustments can be made at any time i f ecuipment needed is not available, or if the laboratory technicians are not available as arranged. A company now knows the cost of any testing programme undertaken and could well allocate a certain number of hours per month to their technical s ta ff to use as recuired without further re-course to permission. - 44 -

e. There it another problem that this system overcomes. A central laboratory tends to lose staff periodically to industry and when it does the effectiveness of the laboratory is very seriously affected, with this oroposed method of operation, the laboratory keeos functioning quite well and the pressure on the replacement s ta ff member is much less of course. When industry technical staff are frequently visiting the laboratory the chances fo r the permanent s ta ff to ieam core about how industry operates and more about its problems is greater than when they have to rely on special visits. With the routine testing work for raw material assessment, quality control and trouble shooting investigations being done by personnel from industry, the permanent laboratory s ta ff have more time to devote to the longer term work that the industry is often reluctant to undertake. f. Training The methods adopted fo r training the personnel from industry in the basic theory, method of use and the applications of each niece of test ecruipment in the laboratory will be critical to the success of th is approach. Conventional methods may have to be used hut the consultant is convinced that this can best be done by video training film s which can he made available to those who need them at any time and for very low cost. Work is in hand on the preparation of such films and it is hoped that they will he available in 1983 when an Arabic form could bo considered, iv. Financial Considerations A central packaging laboratory is normally supported financially in three ways; by Government grant, by subscriptions from industry and by fees earned for testing services and investigational projects. More and more Governments are expecting laboratories of this type to contribute to their costs and if the staff is limited to two or three graduates as it so often is, the earning power of the laboratory is severely restricted. In the proposed method the potential earning capacity is raised manyfold without reducing the earning capacity of the permanent staff. It is envisaged that those companies wishing to avail themselves of the opportunity to use the ecuinment nay a monthly fee plus an hourly fee fo r actual time spent in the laboratory.

I - ¿5

C.10- Recovery or Digocsa.1 of Used Packages i. General Points

a. In considering the recovery c f waste materials or packages, it is importan to consider the two main sources and to treat thee seoarately. One is the waste produced in the manufacturing processes and by the large commercial houses and possibly the bigger supermarkets. The other is the domestic waste. Waste from the industrial sources is often clean, of a specific and known type and accumulates fa ir ly raoidly in one place, therefore consideration of recovery possibilities is very real. In the second case, that of domestic waste, the material is very mixed, often very dirty and the cost of collection, sorting and cleaning before it would be possible to consider recovery or recycling, is so high, that success of the many schemes that have been tried has been strictly limited. It is therefore considered essential that recovery from domestic waste has to be planned and executed before the materials or containers are mixed with other rubbish. b. There is a tendency to fee l that recovery programmes w ill help with the iitter problem which is not felt to be the case by many experts. They are re a lly two separate problems in that persuading people not to lit t e r their environment with rubbish is a social problem and has to be treated as a natter of education or legislation. c. Collection Costs It is often thought that i f the amount of packaging used is reduced, the costs of collection and disposal w ill be much reduced. I t has been shown that this is not the case. Refuse collection from domestic sources has to be carried out in any event to remove the o u trifiable components. The saving if all packaging was eliminated in the U.K., for example, was estimated at 70 pence (1 JDS) per year per head. The only change would be a drop o f approximately one-third ir. the ::ei.-ht of rubbish collected. In Jordan the percentage of packaging appearing in domestic waste mus" be far less than one-third. d. Resources A number of proposed recycling methods have been found to use almost as much energy as that being saved, obviously this must be guarded against. e. Disposal Considering the various methods of disoosal, cost considerations will be o f paramount importance. The range of costs for the various methods in use in the U.K. for 1979/79 was as follows: - 46 -

Av. Cost £ oer Tor. Untreated land fill 2.2 Shredded land f i l l 5-2 Direct incineration 9.7 Separation and incineration 10.5 Other methods 11»5 Largely fo r economic reasons, the method fo r disposal o f waste during that period had the following "breakdown: Land f i l l Land f i l l after shredding Direct incineration Separation and incineration Other methods (comoosting) li- Land f i l l , therefore, is by fa r the cheapest method and in the U.K. the drive for alternative methods is largely promoted by the fact that suitable land is becoming further and further away from the citie s and the cost of transport is getting higher and higher. In the absence of such problems the use of land f i ll as a method of disposal must be considered as .the best method and as there is a great deal of land being excavated fo r stone and for minerals in Jordan, land that needs to be re fille d would appear to be in plentiful suooly. Land f i ll after shredding/pulverising is done largely to allow some of the more complicated methods of recovery, e.g. extraction of tin from tinolate containers. Since the number o f cans being used in Jordan is very low oer head, th is is unlikely to be very attractive. The percentage of

disposal by land f i l l in the U.K. has hardly chaxif ' from 80f- from 1975 to 197?. Baling speeds settling o f the site. f. Incineration Burning of waste is not only expensive, but it can create more problems in terms o f adverse environmental impact than it solves. The high capital, maintenance and operating costs are aggravated by the need to provide standby equipment. g. Connosting This has not proved to be attractive in the U.K., largely because it is a costly process and the compost produced tends to lack nitrogen. is hardly lik e ly to assist this process. h. Waste Derived Fuels Because of the great d iffic u ltie s o f recovering oaoer, wood and Plastics from domestic waste, interest has been focussed on the production of a waste derived fuel (WDF), as being one of the few systems that can be said to look

promising. - 47 -

Methods of Recovery and Recycling a * Paver and Board 1) The recovery of paper and hoard car be an important factor in a country’ s economy. In the U.K. 3' -e r cent of a ll caper and board manufacture is from waste caDer because, like Jordan, the sources of indigenous cellulose fibre are very limited. 2) Converters and Commercial Printers The waste oroduced by carton makers and those companies printing on paoer and board is a valuable source for recovery ourooses. The Jordan Pacer M ill buys a ll the clean waste it can obtain in Jordan and can take a lot more. The route for recovery is well-established in Jordan; attention should be focussed on collection. The manufacture o f egg trays and boxes from waste pacer pulp is considered a successful and highly desirable way of recovering cellulose fibre. 3) Waste Derived Fuels Pacer and board usually represents the highest proportion of nackaging waste; in the U.K. it is about 2? cer cent of the domestic waste. However, ve lit t le of this is actually recovered. Since neither paper nor clastic can be recovered from domestic waste economically, the possibility ol making that waste into a fuel has been seriously investigated. It should be noted that using it directly as a fuel has not been as successful as expected because operating costs have been consistently higher than excected. Plants providing heat fo r house warming have had some success but this is hardly a need in Jordan's equitable climate that would justify expensive installations. A number of plants are in operation making waste-derived fuels and are having some success in croducing pelletized material. Acproximately seven plants are ocerating in the U.K., but further develocment w ill depend on the success of those already b u ilt; it is by no means a c lear- cut success. This coint is dealt with further under elastics recycling. 4) Value of Waste Paper Content recycling degrades it, newsnaper being a rather low grade. Since the output from the mill using it in Jordan is largely in the form of medium for the corrugated box containers, it must be appreciated that the waste material being used must be ungraded i f reasonable cruality corrugated boxes are to be made, b. Class 1) The recovery cf glass has been probably the most successful of the recovery operations. In the future this is bound to be of importance to Jordan as the use of glass containers rises with the introduction of local manufacture. - 43 -

2) It has evolved that seoarati.cn of glass containers from domestic waste is not an attractive operation and that attention should be focussed on the seoaration and collection of glass waste. Glass collection schemes have been successful in many countries and are growing; in 19-0 the cruantity collected for recycling was 53,000 tons and the target for 1984 is 25C,OOC tons. Glass recovery as cullet can be attractive either to the large glass factory that is olanned or to smaller factories that exist now, that make household articles. The most effective form fo r recovery has been sealed metal skins placed at various sites throughout the city usually at narking lots. People are recuested to olace bottles of different colours in different comoartments o f the skin. This is undoubtedly something that Jordan should nursue but it w ill take years for people to get into the habit of taking their waste glass containers to the collection ooint, therefore instant success is not to be expected. 3) Re-usable Glass Containers The use of multi-trio glass containers is well established in Jordan and where the beverages are sold in places where the bottle is retained, i.e. in cafes, bars, etc., the number of trips is very good (in the order of twelve). It is well-established, however, that where glass containers are sold through outlets such as supermarkets or o ff licences, the number o f trios obtained from a refillable container falls to two or three. At this level, ic is unlikely that the benefits of a re-usable container are great enough to ju stify the problems involved. It could be that a light-weight, one-trio glass container that is recovered through the cullet system could be a more attractive system fo r Jordan, especially away from the major conurbations. Since the waste glass can be used within the country, recovery would aopear to be more attractive than attemnting recovery of aluminium containers, or tinnlate containers, c. Metal Containers 1) The waste from the can making factories can be connressed and disoatched to detinning olants if this is economically viable. 2) Tinnlate Recovery Tinnlate can;? that appear in domestic waste, can in theory, be separated successfully by magnets, however, they w ill have something in the order of 20 ner cer.t of dirt and food waste sticking to them which w ill have to be burr.e o ff. Such burned cans contain carbon deposit and the demand for this waste is rather limited. Tin is a very valuable commodity and detinning as a process is nerfectly feasible. The cans have to be cleaned and shredded for it to work w ell. The concentration of cans in waste in Jordan w ill not be very high since canned foods are fa r from being as oopv.lar as they are in many - ¿9 -

other countries. Therefor? it ir hard to icr.pin? a ietinnirg operation cein.r attractive here. Since the whole emphasis in the Arab Region w ill "be on the replacement of tinplate containers "by plastics and in the case of Jordan, oerhaps by glass, it would not seem attractive to consider an expensive and elaborate recovery programme. 3) Aluminium Cans The ainminiiim can is made from an attractive material and recovered aluminium can be used for small-scale casting ooerations, therefore their recovery might aopear attractive. Since they are non-magnetic, their separation from waste is very d iffic u lt and contamination is a very real problem. It has been suggested elsewhere that the use of aluminium cans for the oackaging of beverages would appear to be contrary to Jordan's interests since the methods of manufacture are so enormously expensive and shiooing in empty containers apoears to be a serious waste of foreign exchange. If glass containers are going to be locally made, it appears to be more in Jordan's interests to discourage the use of aluminium containers and promote the use of glass rather than spend effort and money on recovering the aluminium containers after they have entered the waste disposal system. d. Plastic Containers and Materials 1) In Converters Plant The process of blowing film , or blowing bottles, or obviously creates a considerable amount of waste. However, the system of re-shredding this waste and feeding it back in with new resin is well- established in a factory of any size. It would appear therefore that no further action on the cart of the Government is necessary since recycling of plastic waste within a plant is an essential part of its operations. Plastics do degrade to some extent on recycling and the percentage used has to be controlled or a poor product w ill result. 2) Recovery and Recycling from Domestic Waste Plastics at present in common use in Jordan are: HD and LD oolyethylene, oolyoropylene, oolystyrene and some PVC. Over the next few years this w ill be joined by , nylon and to a lesser extent, certain specialized plastics. These plastics cannot be mixed if they are to be recycled since, i f they are, the resulting mixture tends to have very Poor properties. Undemanding products have been made in this way such as plant cots but this is hardly a natter for Government concern. An apparently ingenious idea was to use recycled plastics, Pigmented black, to make waste collection . Due to mixing of different kinds of plastic, the resulting bag had to he made thicker than tha* made from virgin material and proved more expensive. - 50 -

The British Plastics Manufacturers Federation came to the conclusion that nixed plastic waste cannot be recycled as a commercially viable proposition. 3) Separated Plastic Waste In seme countries, schemes are run by voluntary groups who either gather a particular type of ela stic , e.g. polystyrene yoghurt cots or try to separate the various tyres. If it is felt that voluntary labour t can be used in this way, recovery may be possible. 4) PET Recovery At present PET (polyethylene terephtallate) is not used in Jordan but it will be in the form of very strong bottles as large beverage containers and may well appear as a one-trio smaller soft drink container as an alternative to the metal can. This plastic is attractive because it is much easier to identify and has more value since it can be made into fibres (for caroet making of insulation material). The ease of identification can be increased by having the words PET marked boldly on every bottle of this type so that a collection system sim ilar to that used fo r glass can be introduced in due course. 5) Waste-Derived Fuels It is not possible to recover paper, plastic and wood from domestic waste but methods have been developed fo r processing them into pellets that can be used as fu el. These fuels have between 40 and 50 per cent of the c a lo rific value of coal but special furnaces would be recuired as the ash is greater than normal. In countries that do not have access to o il, this is attracting some attention and the scheme is considered one of the very few fru itfu l lines for future development. It is hard to imagine that this relatively borderline activity involving as it does a very high capital investment in processing plant and in the use of special furnaces could be attractive to Jordan. It would seem to be fa r better to leave the process alone until it is more highly developed and until there is a foreseeable need for fuel supplies. Even then the work on development should be at regional level. 6) Pallet In the U.K., there is one source of waste plastic that has been recycled with success and that is pallet overwraps. In 1980 3S,000 tons of plastic was used for retail distribution and approximately 25,000 tons was recycled. However, the bulk was from pallet overwraps, something not yet found to any great extent in Jordan. - 51 -

7) Degradable Plastics The oossibility of making elastics UT or microbiologically degradable, caught the imagination some years ago. It has been discredited, not cn technical fe a s ib ilit y grounds, but on the grounds that even i f it could be done the results could be oarticularly unwelcome, e.g. the breakdown oroducts could well represent a greater threat to the environment than the inert Dlastics themselves. An excellent oaoer which lays out the > arguments fo r and against the idea is available from DfCPEft (lo1 Fleet Street, London, EC4A 2DP, U.K.), ’Degradability and Plastics Packaging*. 8) Further Information Information on this important tooic is as follows: - The Study of Returnable and ITon-Retamable Containers. Advisory Council. HMSO 1932 U.K. - Figuring Out Rubbish. IRCPEJL 151 Fleet Street, London, EC4A. 2DP, U.K. - Energy from Waste. HMSO. 1979- Waste Management Advisory Council, U.K. - Refuse Resources, Recycling. Porteous. Longmans, U.K. 1973 U.K. - 52 -

The recommendations are given below in the form of a detailed lis t with suggested priority treatments, .’¿hen the various bodies have had time to analyse th9 points made, and the nature of the evidence on which they are based, it w ill be possible to build up a programme of action based cn these accepted, together with new proposals that w ill no doubt emerge from the deliberations.

Priority Recommendation 0 General

1. 1 The aDal;^is of the state cf Jordanian products when offered for sale (as illustrated in Annex 2) should be continued on a regular basis. 2. 1 The technical staff operating in industry must be fully informed. about the nature and application of the test ecuipoent and test techniques at present available in RS3. A formal training method available at any time should be sought. This would probably best take the form of video training films. 3. 1 The R3S paper and pactaging '—^oratory should be reinforced.

a. i Serious consideration should be given to permitting the technical staff from industry to be present during the testing of their packaging materials and containers, and the elimination cf the formal test report preparation as practised at present. Corrugated Boxes

5. 1 Every support should be given to helping the local supplier produce geed quality corrugated boxes. It is a vital industry. e. 1 The equipment necessary for testing the materials and the boxes produced should be available tc the manufacturer and tc the users tcc. 7. The present level of printing quality cn corrugated boxes must be improved. S. 3 The introcUctian cf a joint venture ccmcany blending printing inks from concentrates locally should be considered as a means of bringing some much needed technical assistance in the fiald of printing. 2. 3 The introduction cf a box certification scheme 3houli ce considered - 53 -

Priority Recommendation

1C. 3 The application of the corrugated box to fruit and vegetable packaging should be encouraged. 11. 3 The possible manufacture of the a ll—plastic corrugated containers should be considered.

Folding Cartons

12. 1 Support should be given to the local company that recently made a large investment in excellent machinery for production. 13. 1 The insistence an cast-ccatsd board fcr Pharmaceutical cartons should be discouraged throughout the Arab Region. 14. 1 The growth of carton systems that require such specialized, materials of construction that they are unlikely to ever be made in Jordan, (e.g. Tetraoak and Purenak) should, he discouraged. 15. '2 The quality and thickness of the carton beard being used for detergent powders by at least one manufacturer is inadequate. Standards fcr leakproofness for such containers should be introduced. 15t 2 As the folding carton market is likely to he small for some time to cane, the number cf converters should be restricted tc allow the quality tc be built up. 17. 3 Efforts should be made tc promote the need fcr well-made cartons when medium or high speed cartooning machinery is being used. 18. 3 A special study should be started cn the creasing rule/ make—ready combinations that are needed for good creasing under local conditions. 19. 3 It is apparently in Jordan's interests to pack in plastics or glass whenever possible and this should be borne in mind when considering expansion in the U3e of specialized folding cartons. 20 Match carton production should be considered as a special case better dene 'in-house'. - 54 -

Priority Recommendation

21. 1 The number of cumcanies making nlactic containers should be reduced. 22. 1 Standards are needed fcr the performance cf plastic con- tainers focussing on nrint adhesion and leaic resistance. 23. 1 The test equipment and test methods associated with plastic container packaging must be made available as scon as passible. 24. 1 '.toys must be tried of making local industry more aware cf the benefits of scientific testing and a way found in which they can be actively involved in the application of these testing techniques. 25. 1 The use of self-adhesive labels on plastic containers should be encouraged. 25. 1 A special study should be made to see i f 3 standard range of plastic containers can be agreed on fcr the Arab Region, product by product, especially in the case cf household products. CM r* *■*

• The growing practice whereby product manufacturers make their awn pac<

P rio rity P. eccmmenda t ion

32. 2 The use cf blown plastic containers as a form of milk pack­ aging should be encouraged. 33. 3 A special study should be made cn the possible introduction cf PET bottles for the packaging of carbonated soft drinks as an alternative to the can and as a means of introducing one litre and two litre containers to the market for family use.

Plastic Films and Laminates

34. 1 The diversity of types of laminates in use is very great and without a big market it is d ifficu lt to make them economically. The freedom to urchase laminates abroad is necessary because the properties needed are often very specific. 35. 1 There is a real need fcr a central laboratory with a good understanding cf the properties that can be expected from a given combination cf materials. Test equipment for the materials and the filled packs will be essential. 36. 2 A special study should be made on the application cf co-extruded file s to the future needs of the Jordanian market and the possibility that this might be an exportable product. 37. The introduction cf the sterilizable pouch is not recemended as an alternative to the can.

Glass Containers

3S. 1 The use of disposable, light-weight, glass containers should replace the aluniniun can and possibly the tinolate can as a beer container. 39. 1 The varnishing of paper labels should be made mandatory, except in the case of re-usable containers. 4C. 1 A special company for making closures should be considered as part of the glass container industry so as to offer a total service to customers. 41. 3 The central packaging laboratory should begin work studying the application cf glass containers to as many uses as possible fcr the .Jordanian market. 42. 3 The needs cf the oharmaceuticai industry should be investigated to see i f a small separate company for glass containers .vcula better serve its nerds. 43. 3 Technical help from the central laboraocry 3hould concentrate

x T - 56 - Priority m eccmraenciation

cn the testing of fille d containers rather than the technology of glass containers. 44. 3 Consideration should be given to the very gradual standardization of brown as the colour for glass containers for beer, so that recovery as cullet w ill be simplified. 45. 3 The siting of skips for the collection of used glass containers should begin no*. Metal Cans

46. 1 The staff of the metallurgical laboratory in RSS should be given special training in the testing of cans. 47. 1 The present state of the food can industry should be surveyed by a specialist in can production. 46. 1 Food can production should be limited to one specialist company created by the union of one of the specialist can makers in a joint venture with a long-established foreign manufacturer. 49. 1 The quality of the canned tomato paste on sale in Jordan should be the subject of an immediate enquiry by the body responsible for food hygiene. 50. 1 A standard range of can sizes for feed use should be established, prefsrably cn an Arab Regional basis. 51. '< There should be national standards fer feed cans. 52. 2 A vigorous campaign should be instigated to reduce the number of dented cans being offered for sale. 53. 3 The use of aluniniun cans far beer and soft drinks should be discouraged. 54. 3 Aerosol can testing equipment should be introduced into the central testing laboratory. 55. 3 .Vider use of tin-free steel ani second cuality date in local can production should be encouraged as a means of saving foreign exchange. The expertise necessary fer the analysis of lead and tin content of canned feeds shculd be developed. - 57 -

Frtority R g ç m in e r "nJà u x û m

'.’.'ccden 3cxes

5?. 1 The standard fcr wooden boxes for fru it and vegetable packaging at present specifies length, width and height. This should be reconsidered with a view to freeing the > height requirement so as to make fcr mere fle x ib ility . se. 3 The future role of the corrugated box in export packaging of fru it and vegetables should be borne in mind when planning wooden box capacity expansion. Jcven Plastic Sacks

59. 1 Test facilities for drop-testing filled sacks and the s k ill to use them need to be acquired at the central test laboratory. 60. 1 National standards fcr flour sacks are required to simplify comparisons between local and imported sacks. 61. 1 The cutside purchase cf flour sacks should be discouraged when the local product can be shown to be a fa ir match. S2. 1 The system for placing large orders fcr delivery at agreed weekly or monthly rates should be encouraged so that the factory may olan its ^reduction efficiently. 63. 2 The local manufacturer should be given every suuoort in expanding to meet a greater percentage cf the high quantities that w ill be required when the newer flour mills come on stream. &X. 3 The potential for manufacturing the one ton "big bag" should be investigated, at national and regional level. The ruling that the plastic flour sacks should be used only once should be re-examined. The Disposal or Recovery of Used Packages

65. 1 The problem of litte r should be regarded as a social and educational problem and not cne tc be solved by banning or restricting packaging materials cr containers cf a certain type (with some possible exceptions such as rip-tep cans). £7. 1 Land f i l l would appear tc be the best way of disposing cf waste packaging materials in Jordan. £3. 1 Direct incineration as a way cf disposal of packaging - 58 -

\Dasts can cost six ■times that of" .Land. fiL l and does not appear to have any advantages for Jordan. SS. 3 The recovery cf glass containers before they enter the domestic waste systan should be imolemente!, although it must be realized that it w ill be many years oefcre it becomes effective. 70. 3 The use of biodegradable plastics is not a viable solution. 71. 3 The recovery and re-use from industrial vaste of plastic materials is in most cases already being done; a check could be made to see that it is not being overdone. 72. The recovery of plastic waste from domestic waste is not a viable operation. 73. 3 Any plastic recovery schemes concerned with keeping plastic waste separate from domestic 'waste should emphasize the need to keep the different kinds separate. 74. 3 Collection of paper waste from industrial and commercial sources should be encouraged. 75. The recovery cf waste paper from domestic sources should be regarded as impracticable. 76. 3 The production of waste-derived fuels from the paper, plastic and wood in domestic waste should be regarded as a real possibility but work on the process in Jordan should be restricted to the reed for such a process and the implications concerning the special design of furnaces required. This is a regional investigation. 77. 3 /•hen PET bottles are introduced, it should be a require­ ment that they are clearly narked as such as an aid to their recovery.

76. .Vcrk on the recovery of metal containers from domestic waste seems unlikely to be cf value to Jordan over the next five years. List cf Contacts

tir. A. Raouf, Resident Re ~ re sent ao iva ?.C. 3c:c 3~2'35 Mr. X.A. Jinini, Administrative Officer Arman Mr. A.M. Ma^hauay, Pro-trance Officer Jordan Tel. S3'7: Mr. A. Shassnaa, Finance Officer t 2. Ministry of Industry and Trade

Dr. '3ng. Akran Jamil Xarmoul, Director of Industry P.0. 3o~ 2019 Mr. Saiah Filin Tana, Director of Standardisation Amman 2n?. Sales Cheiv.-i, Director of Standards Jordan Mr. Ramon 3. Haiteh, Pood Processing Rhg. Tel. 53191 Mr. Ghaci AI Sabbarfc, quality Control Fng. Rh?. Suhair Amavi Mr. "assea Momani

3. Agricultural Processing Go.

Mr. Salem A. Okour, General Manager P.0. 3cm 73 U x:._7TL Jordan Tel. 92030

A. Jordan Pacer ani Cardboard Factories Co. Ltd. ?.0. 3om 1?11 Amman Jordan Tel. 03^ ’A*" Zerda

. Canning Industries Ltd.

6. U.T.I. Co.

Mr. '/ail Karadisheh, Production Manager ?.0. 3o:c Madaba Jordan Tel. 399 Maiaba

7. Industrial, Commercial and Agricultural Co. Ltd

Dr. Ahmad T. ¡Cassia, 1Manufacturing Manager P.0. 3ox óOói Amman Jo rdar. T®1. Fuseifa ~, 7

9. Sadi Darvaseh and Co.

Mr. Maruan 3. Darv/aoeh, General Director ?.C. 3c:-: 9393 ^ aran C3ntr° 3uiM rr Arman Jordan

•?. The '.ihite Plastics Factory

Mr. Samir M. 3u;hiadi, General Manager P.0. 3o:c *907 Mr. Mahmoud Dvaib (Doc Chemical Co. Amman Jordan T"i. 7= Mo

Z - 60 -

10. Est. Hi~hsn Hobian

11. The Jordan Plastics Co. Ltd.

Hr. ÎT= ji Abuaitah, Technical Manager P.C. Box 239* Amman Jordan Tel. 73^4*

12. The Royal Scientific Society

Dr. Abdalla Jaradat, Director Mechanical Hog P.O. Box 3945 Mr. Khalid Shazmag, Head of Packaging Lab. Amman Mr. S. Kafaf, Head of the Plastic Lab. Jordan Tel. 344801

13. Shurrab Bros.

Mr. Masr Shurrab, General Manager Bruce Factory HI Juwaidah Amman Jordan Tel. 75105

14. Sultan Plast.

Mr. Abdelghani Sultan, General Manager P.O. Box 15147 Amman Jordan Tel. 36431

15. The Jordan Talley Comoany

Mr. M. Sveritt, Consultant Jordan Talley Jordan

1o. The Arab Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Co.

Brig. Gen. Farouk S. Omari P.O. Box 2649 Suit Amman Jordan Tel. PVT 42112

17. The Amman Chamber of Industry

Mr. Ali Dajini Amman Jordan

15. The Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology

Dr. Sawah, Director Amman Dr. Awny, Assistant Technical Director Jordan Mr. Alam HH Den Mr. Saudy

19* The Arab 3reweries Co.

Mr. ?. A. Ghazal, Brewery Manager P.O. Box 590 Amman Jordan Tel. 31421 20. The Modern Flour Mills

J£r. Bakfcit IT. Bakhit, Director P.O. Box 1533 Amman Jordan Tel. 21817

21. Jordan Beverage Co.

Jtr. Ibrahim A1 Zain, Managing Director Amman Jordan

22. Abdul Hakeem Shaarawi and Sons

Mr. Abdul Hakeem Shaarawi, Director P.O. Box 7389 Amman Jordan Tel. 7585c

23. Kabatilo Industry and Trading Sat.

Mr. Abdula Kabatilo, Managing Director P.O. Box 23544 Amman Jordan Tel. 22413

24. The Shaarawi Chewing Gum Factory

Mr. Sami A.A. Shaarawi, Manager P.O. Box 5712 Amman Jordan Tel. 72H5

25. Amstel Brewery Ltd.

26. The Jordan Dairy Co.

27. The Jordan Food Processing Co.

Mr. Alfred 3nil Salib, Technical and P.O. Box 470 Research Man Amman Jordan Tel. 24290

29. Dar A1 Dawa Dev. and Investment Co. Ltd.

Mr. M. Fit>ani, Gen'ral Manager P.O. Box 93^4 Amman Jordan Tel. 3932?

29. The Deoartaent of Statistics - 62 -

70 ^nv ^ ?în*flt+A Пп.

Mr. Antoun Abdel Malek, Technical Manager

31. The Jimco Match Factory Amman Jordan

32. Jordan Polymers and Intermediate Chemicals Co

Mr. A. Snober, Managing Director P.0. Box 2502 Mr. Jiryes Baaleh, Sales Manager Amman Jordan Tel. 86311

33. Jordan Paper Sacks Ltd.

Mr. Mifleh, General Manager P.0. Box 20230 Mr. Aziz Abu Rumman, Dep. Gen. Manager Amman Jordan Tel. 843959

34. Arab Mineral Water Co.

Mr. Blan J. Khatib, Plant Manager P.0. Box 2011 Amman Jordan Tel. 23231

35. Kotab Press Ltd.

Mr. Zaki M. Taha, General Manager P.0. Box Ю244 Amman Jordan Tel. 93548

36. Zahi Confectioneries and Biscuits Factory

Mr. Zahi Khalil Tamim, General Manager Amman Jordan

37* University of Jordan - Faculty of Food Science

Dr. M. Fagih Amman Dr. Salma Tukan Jordan Dr. Дате Ayed

38. Kima Co.

Mr. S. Azzouni - owner P-0. 3ox 2225 Amman Jordan Tel. 42919 39* Safi a Industrial Co.

Mr. ammari Alarmoti, Factory Manager P.0. Box 1379 Amman Jordan Tel. 75520

40. Orient Plastic Co.

Mr. Abdulwahab A. Abdeen P.0. Box 5469 Адтгт Jordan Tel. 941З3 Survey and Appraisal of the Main Types cf Packaging Used for Jordanian Products

Note: Sane of the products have been reported more than once. This has been done i f the packaging «as thought to be unsatisfactory and is an attempt to avoid describing what might be an isolated case. GENERAL GCMMEHT3 FACKAflING ASSESSMENTS TYPE

Product Manufacturer Ut. or Vol. Description and Comments

Frui t und Visit to typical small retail store. No sign of pre-packaging at a ll. Lot of damage Veg. to the fruit.

Stationery Visit to typical stationers. Anart from brown paper naoks, no sign of any Jordanian products.

Food Supermarket manager commented that peonle don’ t want to buy the local product riot only because it did not look good, but it did not taste as good either. They would spend "ten times as much on imported to get what they wanted". Only when the imported product was forced o ff the shelves by legislation of punitive import duties would they buy the looal product and then they were pretty mad about it.

Cigarettes Jordan Cigarette This big store had given up selling any oigarettes beoause at the profit margin allowed they just lost money. No justification for Belling. Agreed that packaging and presentation wore very good, but in this case rather a waste of time.

Eggu Eggs are sold from pulp trays. Manager commented that many people had given up ' selling eggs beoause it loot money. They continuo only as a service to their 5i customers. No allowance made for broken eggs. (

Tomato Agricultural Many of the cans on the shelves were in an unsaleable oondition due to leakage, When nustc Prod. asked by the Consultant why they were thero the manager reolied that the oompan.y would not accept them back for replacement (this appears an astonishingly bad situation but he insisted that many manufacturers in Jordan adopt this attitude). Once the product had been sold, they did not want to hear anything about it. "Take it or leave it". But manager claims that eomoetitive products have been banned therefore they have no choice but to nut un with it. But the allowed nrofit margin does not take into account the cons that are in nuch bad oondition that they cannot be sold and therefore they w ill loie money on selling this product.

Food, The i i of expiry dates was welcomed by one supermarket manager. Until thin was general introUucod products really did stay on the shelves for years until they were sold, ("five or six years").

Food, One supermarket manager expressed the view that the quality of local products was general actually falling and he put this down to manufacturers UBing poorer materials us u means of operating within the price ceilings. PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE CANS

o Product Manufacturer wt. or Vo: Oeeorlption and Comenta

C 1. Orange Juice Saudi Beverages 25Qnl Tinplate body, aluminium top, appears to be tin-freo steel base. liihbod uiilea. Ut-ll printed. Very high rint. C 2. Beer Amstel Breueriet Two-piece can. Appears to be tinplate base with aluminium teur-strio top. fixer Hunt pack 3 3. Foul Moudaiwi as 1NFC0 Labanot Can with paper label. Overall effeot very good. C 4. Ghee Jordan Veg. Oil Nt.Wt. A lithographed can of good design and colouring. Industry 2. 250kg C 5. Ajirlcfil Jam Agricultural - Poor appearance. Almost every tin dented. Poor quality of illuntration. Labels acuffod. Processing Co. C 6. Furvatj paste Agricultural P. Of the approx. 12 cans on view, at least C were cuntaiuinatud with product. I'upor l^licl. Four woru ;.u luil Lfut they would be very funl to je ll . C ?. T i iiM Li. : . m .■’.jrioulLural I1. 410gm Lithographed can. Rather dull appuuranсe. I'rint badly iiarulched during processing. Tlo jign

0 1 Tomato paste Jordanian - Supermarket owner oanplainad of leakage contaminating other cans giving poor appearance. He complained that packaging in general of Jordanian products was very poor. C 14. Gherkins Internationa 1 Ir d. Labelled can. Good quality label, well printed. Heavy, all-over print (expensive). Food Co. (INFCO) Lebanon Slight signs of rust, nothing serious. C 15. Jam, Quince INFCO, Lebanon Mt.1000gm Lacquered can, paper label. Appearance good. Slight corroBion, not serious. C 1G. lam, apricot I NFOO, Lebanon 4t.1000gm Lacquered can, paper label. Heavy gloss varnich. High quality paper. Contaminati.cn by labelling adhesive has unfortunate effect on appearance. Some labels torn and cans dented

4 '

i CAN3 ( 2 ) PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS ТУРЕ

Product Manufacturer Wt. o r Vo D escription and Coen en ta

С 1?. ìloss paini IGA 1 US Gal Large lower lid can. All-over printed can. Well finished, good uppoarance. Good. 3.7Q7 1. С 10. ¡loss paint ICA £ US Gal, Large metal can, wrap-round paper label. Scuffed. Adequate but not too good. 0.947 1. С li.'. JjTlQb Farm Foods 300 gm Lithographed tin. Good appearance except that many were dirty with dried on dirt (not duet). Retailer says that this is quite carman. С 2Ü. Beans Cunsorvas Moderr• Nt Wt. Lithographed can, well, printed, pleasing appearance. as, QITruru 350gm Lebanon G ¿1. Boans Miskoui. Beirut Large can. Paper label. Reasonable appearance. Lebanon С 22. Ghee Nablus, Jordan Nt. Wt. Large can. Lithographed. White and good appearance. Many of the cans were badly Veg. Oil Ref. 2.250kg dented (retailer said often like this). Some had been leaking. Tenuto paste Agr. Proc. Go. 850gm large can. Paper label. Marked colour variation. Appearance not too bad but retailor says this is because he has separated out the leakers (la te r seen, two had blown). Prefit , margin for retailer 5 fils therefore only noeds to lose 1 can in 100 to make no profit ^ and, in fact they I orc much more. Producers profit margin not known. С 24. Tuiuto paste Ag. Pro. Go. Nt. Wt. Lithographed nan. Most of them dented. Dull appearance. 410 gin * С 25. /eg. Jordan Veg. Oil Nt. Wt. Largo lithographed can, half badly dented i.. several places in some cases. Gun greasy Shortenin'! Imi. 2 kg on outsido from leakage and picking up dirt because of this. Well printed. approx.

С 2G. Ghee State Knterprioe Large can. No sign of leakage. for vug. o il Iraq. RIGID & SEMI-HIOID PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE . PLASTIC CONTAINERS

o Product Manufaotursr wt. o r vo: Description and Comments

PC 1. Sweets Mot shown Polystyrene (expanded) tray with polythene film . Clean and quite good presentation. Packer not known hut sweets manufactured by Bristows.

PC 2. Small dresse 1 Lambrides, Mot shown Polystyrene (expanded) tray with overwrap. Three labels. Quite attractive and udcquate. birds? Cyprus Thermo formed polystyrene oup. White witii aluminium toil tear of heal sealed lid. ALtr..cLiv< PC 3. Toghurt Jon.trn Dairy Co. SOOgm but perhaps a lit t le olain rather than eye-catching. Imoerfections in print (smudging)»

PC 4. ulineral water Arab Mineral Nt.Wt.1.5] . Very clean, fresh looking pack, excellent presentation, robust, tear- Water Co. strip safety cap (plastic). PC 5. Mineral wate. • Kawther Clear plastic thermoformed oup with heat-sealed fo il Hd. Attractive G functional. PC 6. Local, fermor h- Danish/Jordan! n Thermoformed polystyrene base with p ress-fit thermoformad lid . Made by Sultanplast. Printed on outside of the and a paper label stuok on the inside of the lid . Very ted milk disl i good, w ell•printed, no sign of rub. PC 7. lish washing IVtra Chemical Nt.Wt. Plastic bottle, looks like HD poly. Attractively shaped bottle labelled back and front liquid Manufacturing Co, 75° cc. with paper label carrying a poor illustration, unvarnished, poor appearance. Cap not I up to the quality of the bottle, too easily distorted. oo

PC 0. Liquid deter - Spartan Chan.Co Nt.Wt.10QÍ Plastic bottle. Picking up heavy of dust (perhaps no antistatio). White plastic • gent, a ll­ cap and whlto pigmented body. Very poor printing, badly smudged and not detergent resistant. purpose cc. PC 9. Bowl cleanser Spartan Chon. Plastic bottle, apparently HD poly. White cap. Combined base, bottle and brush in holder. Printed one colour to just adequate level. PC ID. Purifier. AlArz Factory Plastic bottle, grey pigmented. Throe bottles on shelf, on two the paper label l»d Gresol dropped off, on the third it was held in place by pieoe of adhesive tape. Very poor appearance, product leaking, dirty. Should not be on a supermarket shelf. PC 11. Max and Floor 1 US Gal. Plastio bottle. Large. HD poly. White pigmented. Good shape, handle. finish PC 12. JetBrpent. Snurton Chem. 1 US Gal. Plastic bottle, large. Handle, white pigmented with white III) poly oap. Well made. It Co. would appear that the bottle has been leaking. Appears to bo silk screen printed. PC 11. Houmurus Plastic . Wide mouth. Print of net weight etc. vo small as to be impossible to read. Tohina Paper label, with glue contamination. Badly designed, badly printed, badly torn} a very poor pack indeed.

PC 14. Liquid ICA 1,OOQgm White pigmented polyethylene bottle with quite good print, little sign of flaking o ff h li-i'g.'iil but sons smudging of print. Basically good. Dispenser and re-clone feature. man) and sTiMi-uToin PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS type plait iti. a n.ivauras. { J)

o Product Manufacturer Wt. or Vo] Description and Cements

PC 15- ClusD define' Spartan 1,0:13 cc F’hjstic hottlu (NO poly) with InjuLslion-mnulilod cap. Print showing very poor .ulh.:.>.inn and (.fled print in the non-print ureas iiudu fur scruffy appearance.

PC 16. Pure veg. oi - QOOgms Nt .Very poor, badly stained label. Overall effect depressing. Cap very dirty, perhaps not made with antistatic agent. Piatstic bottle.

PC 17. - - - Plastic Jar very badly printed, print flaking off. PC 18. Dish washing Household and 1 kg Plastic bottle. ’White pigmented HT> poly with red injection moulded cup. Labelled on liquid Toiletries gross the body and on the top. Reasonably attractive but bottle very badly panelled and a ll very dirty suggesting no antistatic used. PC 19. Hand washing BA2 Co. Plastic bottle. White, TO. Cun with re-clor.ure device. Paper label. Label looks well pasta printed but is now very dirty due to leakage from almost a l l of the bottles. In many cases the glue of the label has contaminated the outside. Very poor appearance. PC 20. Detergent Spartan 1,0D0cc Plastic bottles. White. High dust pick-up. Print flaking o ff and badly smudged. Hood SO 20 quality materials but made up into a poor container. Marked panelling. PC 21. Washing Spartan Plastic bottle with re-olone feuture. LI) or MD. Liquid contents pink in colour gives | Detergent pleasing appearance. Adhesion of print reasonable but in many cases print in the non- ■ print areas or poor definition. ^ PC 22. Bawl cleanse ' Spartan Nt. 1,000 Plastic bottle. HO. Injection-moulded . Printed in blue. Poor ink adhesion. cc PC 23. Glass cleane ' Spurt ;in SOOcc Plastic bottle. Dispenser. Liquid coloured blue to give pleasing effect. Well printed. Only slight signs of poor ink adhesion. Quite good.

pc ;m . Quwl cleanser Sofirtun (As 22) Plastic bottle. Panelling. Print flaking o ff due to poor adhosion. Scruffy, PC 25. Glass cleaner Spartan 650cc Plastic bottle with dispenser cap. Paper label, attractive bottle feels like P\C. Product coloured blue. PC 2Ó. Gish washir

PC 27. Vinegar - - Plastio bottle. Print not adhering to thB plastic surface. PC 30. Tehina Plastic pots with large screwed-on plastic lids in a variety of colours. Poor design. Print adhesion poor. RIOID ANT) SKMI-niaiD PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE . PLASTIC CONTAINER'S (3 )

o Product Manufacturer Wt. o r Vb] D escription and Conmants

PC .so. Sesame Oil - - Plastic Jar. Wide mouth. Screw cap. Each HD ja r is in a polythene bag, stapled. Then a number of are overwrapped in poly film. Great care to present them clean. Printed one colour, simple but pleasing appoiimnce. PC 31. Dairy Prods. Jordan Dairy P. - Variety of thermofomed containers being displayed in the chilled cabinet. A ll looking very good. PC 32. Car shampoo Arab Chemical 1jOOOcc Plastic bottle. Hd poly. Printed red & black. Good adhesion, no smudging of print. Injection moulded cap, quite attractive packaging. PC 33. Shampoo Hcusehold and 325cc Plastic bottle. Attractive design. PV£. Injection moulded cap. Elegant pack. Paper Toiletries Co. label back and front. Reasonable standard of printing but not up to the rest of the pack. TAJAT-* This pioduct is part of a range; a ll wbII packed. PC 3

PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE fLASTIC CONTAINERS (4)

o Product Manufacturer Wt. o r Vo' Description end Comments

To -lu. ““ Plastic tub, large and fla t with snap-on lid . Oily produot with the o il leaking out staining the paper label an the outside of the Jar. Another paper label inside In contact with the nroduct now completely soaked in o il. Thin would not bo tolerated on health grounds because the ink has effectively come into contact with the product. The oily, sticky exterior was picking up dirt. PC p . Detergent Household end G.Wt. 5Q0g. Plaatio bottle. Plastic cap. HD, white pigmented. Two paper labels, one completely liquid Toiletries wrapped around body, the other on the bottle neck. Goad shape. Bottles have been leaking and the paper labelB uro badly stained. Come panelling. In several cases caps have broken. PG 42. Dishwashing Siuirt.m Plastic bottle. HD. Re-eloso device. Print in the non-print areas. Leakage in r)C ~>er cent liquid of the bottles from under the cap. Print not adhering in many cases. Poor. There can be no pre-testing of products before dispatch or so many leakers would not get through to the shops. PG 1i. Baby shampoo BAZ Co. Ind. 250cc Plastic bottle. Attractive. PVC. Clear. Paper label quite well printed but cap has Gamin. ruptured at the top. Liquid coloured light brown. Basically an excellent pack. PG 44. Bowl cleanse ' Spartan 4t. 1 ,000c : Plastic bottle. Injection-moulded cap. Printed in blue but poor due to poor ink adhesion. PC 45. Glass cleanc r Spartan 500cc Plastic bottle with dispenser. Liquid coloured blue to give pleoaing effect. Well, printed, good adhesion, only slight sign of flaking. j

PC 40. ftnulsion - - Large plastic pot, with press on lid. Handle, smali buoket. Printed one colour, blue r>ai rit but eoorly done, scuffing end nrint in the non-nrint. areas. , PC 4?. Detergents S i-irtan Range of plaatio bottles. Rather better thin time but again signs of leaking (dish washing detergent), high dust pick up and print flaking o ff. Bad panelling in some.

PC 40* A 'haef General Co. Veg. 1 kg Plastic pot. Yellow basa red cap, poorly made tear-strlp. Leakage has made outside (Ghee?) Oils, Iraq. sticky and dirt is being picked up rapidly. Print not adhering well. PC 40. Oetergent Arab Chemical Nt. Wt. Plastic pot. White pigmented HO poly base. Wall made and well printed. (Pack made in paste Detorgcnt Ind. 1 ,0G0gm the Lebanon by Lanban Hick). PC 50. All-purpose Potru Chemical 750cc Plastic bottle. Good design. Blue pigmented. Paper label back and front, colourful cloaner Manufacturing but unvarnished and showing slight signs of scuff. No sign of leakage. Vary good,, PC 51. Washing Oris 220gm Doypac. Wall printed, brought in as printed film. Very attractive. An unusual but cowder very effective use of this style of pack (note: chould be under P'P packaging). PC 5j. Gloacli Jordan Industrie 1 - Plastic bottle. White pigmented. Paper label. Lifted the product to examine the lube) l i • 1111 t and the bleach ran a ll over my hand (by good luck missed my clothes). PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE . CORRUGATED BOX

Product Manufacturer # t. o r Vo! Description end Ci i ente

CB 1 . later in Kawthor Containing 12 x 1^1.bottles of water. White lined outer printed in blue. Attractive, lottles strong, good condition. Sane print in non-print areas. Glued flaps. Good design.

m 2 . limned beer Amntcl Brewery 2U330rul Vary well dusignod and printed. OB 3. Cut flowers Cypal (?) Aiuman CB 4. Juice Modem Juice Box in good condition after use. Had been one leaker. Print very poor, two-colour, red Go. and blue, misregister. Print in non-print area. Poor definition. CB s. Jeter,gent Surf In very goad condition after use. Print poor in register, coverage, print in non- 3uwder cartons print areas. CB c. Jia pers Proctor G Gambit 4x40r Print very good . OB 7. Mineral watei Boukaln, Syria 12 battles Two-colour printing, red and blue. Reasonably good coverage and definition. No print in non-print areas.

CB Û. Maria Biucuv Amman Pood Go. Good condition after use. Print quite good. CB V. iceins of woo 1 Lebanon Large box, plastic . Good condition after use. I CB 10. —iro I PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE GLASS CONTAINERS

°roduot Manufacturar Wt. o r Vo Oaaorlptlon and Cam an ta

G 1. Glass bottles, (ex sauce). Poorly labelled, very unattractive appearance. G 2. Vinegar . G 3. Black disin­ Glass bottle. Unvarnished paper label, very dirty. fectant

G -1. Vinegar Gloss bottle. Re-used wine bottleB sealed with cork and silver fo il over the top, White label unvarnished. Uninspiring but clean and functional. However did not compote for sales, unfortunately with the Imported product next to it , although it was in fact quite considerably cheaper. Ü 5. Roues water Kquvayter Bros( ' ) Glass bottle. Sealed aluminium stun on cap. Paper label unvarnished. Poorly printed but Factory colourful and reasonably attractive.

G ó. Acetic acid Small glass bottle with orown cap. Simple blue printed label (poor presentation). Recycled Perrier bottle. I G 7. Simple, printed label. Poor presentation. Print euoily smudged. G 8. Vinegar Stato enterprise SOQnl. Glass bottle, safety screw cap. Reasonable design. Paper label, unvarnished and allowing. Iraq PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE FOLDING CARTONS

a Product Uanufeoturer i t . o r Vo Description and Gommants

FC 1. Starch, Jameel Slid 3.Wt.20Qgn Carton with flaps glued both ends. Badly printed, one-colour. Poor appearance. powder Owaider, Amman FC 2. Shrimp, ? Mt.Wt. Unvarnished. Badly printed in flexo. Very poor pack held together by Cellotape. At SJOt frozen 1 lb . would seem to need much better presentation to aell. FC 3. Shrimp, United Fisheries 4t.Wt.2kg Waxed board with a polythene bag Inside. Wax ooating has became badly marred, printin: frozen Kuwait good. Overall effect spoiled by stuck on labels. Price 21JD I needo first-class prssenta- t i on« FC 4. Fresh milk Jordan Dairy Co, it.V o l. 11. Purepak carton printed a ll over in two shades of blue. Good,dean, well sealed packs. No sign of leakers. FC 5. Milk, long Danish/Jordan Co N t.V o l.1 l Tetnabrlk carton. Foil laminate. Printed in Sweden. Basically very good appearance. l i f e FC 6. N M N t.V o l.S l n ft N

FC ?. Detergent Jordanian 2O0gm Supermarket manager commented on widespread leakage of powder, even to extent that 200gm nowder could be down to more lik e 150gin. Contamination a problem, kept in book of shop. ( FC 6. Local milk Danish/Jordanian - Thermoformed polystyrene base with press f i t li d . Made by Sultan Pitta. Prin ted on nroduot outside of tub and paper label stuck to lid. Very good, well printed, no sign of rub. * Basically an attractive pack that should perform well. 1 FC 9. Detergent ICA Carton. W1.C. Litho printed. Poor standard, print in non-nrint areas. Cheap looking % powder product that manager says he keepo o ff the shelves because of excessive leakers. Glue oontuminaling the top of the carton. Not up to normal standard for this product.

FC 10 Orange juice Kabitilo Tetrubrik carton made in Sweden. Printed laminate (f o i l ). Excellent presentation. FC 11 Di spouablc taiqul Ol’l.:,, Well designed carton but carton board tour resistance not adequate to stand up to n.lpl’i i-.ll bundling in the shop. Thin example splitting at the corners and chop manager says often like that. Carton almost certainly not printed in Jordan. Does not compare to competitor’ s product, ’Pampers’ . FC 12 Uai.U'Ja.i: t.. I. JC.\ 200gm Glue end carton made from chipboard. Very grey board makes carton rather non-ooinrotitive. .AT.r Supermarket manager oompluined of leakage contaminating shelves and oausing low weight packs. FC 13 Soap powder Arab Detergent 200gui Clean, well made carton, glued ends. Board rather grey. Colour of illustration not /food (face colouring looking very strange). Basically quitu good. PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE . FOLDING CARTONS ^

Product Manufacturer Wt o r Vo Description and C i an ta

FC idJToilet soap I (JA Tuck and carton. Poor board. Doubtful i f thin would operate natiofuctortly on an •Lifeboy* automatic: cartonning machine. Although not attractive, is functional and adequate, K 15iDisouit:j Sharaawi Overcropped carton. Well printed pack, well overwrapped in . FC ISJBiacuiti Sharaawi 145gm Overwrapped carton. Well printed, well overwrapped in a clear film. Good pack. Fp 1?jBiucui tii Amman Food Ind. Overwrap in clear film. Well printed, well designed, looks like polyethylene. Pqueire. Some question as to whether this film can keep the biscuits crisp. 1X3 IrtJPaper tissue: Nuqul Bros. SOQpulls Glued end carton. Perforated panel for access. Very well presented. Range of colours. •Fine* FC 1У Baby dinners Nuqul Bros 30 diaper: Carton glued tap and bottom. Very large. Excellent pack. Very well printed, openlr:g device. Almost tot printed in Jordan, illustrations of babies very good. Carry hartdle. PC 30.Spices, ned Jamil (^voider G Í ons Folding cartons, a range of spices. Glued ends, very poor printing, misregister, pepper, carro wide colour variation. Not suitable packaging for spices which need protection Against *ay, saphron loss of volatile ingradients and re-olooo feuture since they uro kept a lon'f time, iniso, sumac Cartons dirty, in some oases held together with cellotape. FC 21. Facial tissue Arab Invest. Carton. Very well printod. Slued endn. Well choson colour coding. Very good. WJdo runyo ^ of tissue products a l l very well presented. PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE . FLEXIBLE PACKAGING

o Product Manufacturer Wt. o r Vo Description and C amenta

FP 1. Nuts Shuhin, Amman Nt. 200gm Clear plastic film but decorated with ’ Disneyland’ characters. Basically a good appearance likely to attract children. FP 2. Potato crisf s Shahin, Amman Cellophane or polypropylene laminate. Oeoorated as above. Print good quality. FP 3. Tea, Ceylon Wahbe Tamari, B.Wt. Very clean attractive baft in three colours. Foil/puper laminate. Top folded over Jordan iooew and glued down which would be adequate protection but in many of bugs, the seal Imu broken. Teu escaping in email quantities. Basically a very good pack, i f anything of higher quality than imported competition. FP 4. Sliced meats , Not shown 'lot shown Plastic overwrap. Sold from chilled cabinet. Marked with price only. Could be prepared hams on premises. FP 5. Bread Not shown Mot shown Plastio bug, one-colour flexo-printed. Very poor print quality. FP 6. Washing powc ar Saboun Al Dot . Polythene. Badly boat sealed at base, stapled at the top. Printing extremely poor giving poor overall appearance.

FP ?. Nuta or Not shown Not shown Polythene bag. Only identification is price marked on with blue pencil. Poor presentation. Weak bag. FP B. Block choco]ate Overwrap. Only marking in the price marked on with elite pencil. FP 9. Dates Falah, Iraq Block overwrapped in poorly printed cellophane. Sticky on outside. Poor appearance. FP 10 Raisins Not shown Not shown Polythene bag, tied at neck (knotted). Only the price marked on in wax crayon. Poor. ■ FP 11 Toilet tiss Nuuui Bros. Plastic oveiwnap. Cheerful, heavy gauge of polythene used, more than adequate. Heat (2 ro11 a) sealed. Flexo-printcd to reasonable quality. Very good.

FP 12 Macaroni Jordanian Sunermurket manager complained that overwrap was often open due to poor sealing. FP 13 Soup eowdur Household and Clean looking, white, flexible packaging couch, looks like paper/poly. Ileut sealed Toiletries Mn. on a ll four sides. Well printed, no sign fuiluros. Presented in WLO chipbo;ird display outer. PP 14. Macaroni Modem Flour Mil s 400gm Polyethylene pouch, P.P. and S. tubing sealed either end. Not u bad pack but dull. Should really be in glossy, clear pouch to show o ff product. Pouch. Quite good printed pouch with window in print through which to view product. FP 1‘> Snack Pcod Na2ni Subieh "approx Fuctory 20giu Colours perhaps a little dull but well sealed and attractive, functional pack. FP 16. Snack food Jordan Food 20gni Pouch. Polypropylene or cellophane. Reasonably well printed. Window in print. Well Factory scaled, no sign of leakers. Flexo-printed. FP 1?. Biscuits sue FC 17. PACKAGING ASSESSMENTS TYPE FLEXIBLE PACKAGING (2)

a Product Manufacturer Wt. o r Vo! Description and C can ants

FP 18. P a n e r hank ¡¡. Nuuul Bron. - Overwrap, polythene. Neat, well printed. Presented in a board outer. Very uttractive. FP 19. S a l t United Salt Mi lit - Pouch. Polyethylene. Heat sealed either end. Print haB rubbed o ff completely in uoroo caaes, badly damaged in others. No sign of leakerB, bags well sealed.

FP 20. P u n ta Modem F lour Mil! s Plastic bag. LD Poly.i Form f i l l und seal. Dull appoarance, needs greater clarity. Vary few seal failures. M FP 21. Spaghetti Form f i ll and seal pouch. Poly. Bather unacceptably high proportion had seal failures. (Tiger's head FP 22. Nuts in — Plastic bag. Poly bag, very badly printed with the print flaking off. Almost unreadable. ¡¡hells logo) Paper label inside too. Shipped to the store in poly sack. Bag heat sealod. it 11 F P -M . Various other nut products with the print in the same condition e a FP 22. FP 24- Powdered Sabal Not shown Polythene bag. Reasonably strong. Top folded over and stapler! through a paper label Soap Good print adhesion, flexo. FP 25. Soap “Three fives " Not shown Paper overwrap. Inadequate strength of paper in that the comers are frequently found Anwar Kanun to be punctured. Printing two-colour flexo, identifies but hardly promotes the product, i

F P 2 5 . Chocolate Xshour Overwrap, cellophane type. Quite well printed but appears to be on the inside (ra verse 3 wafer blscui a p rin ted ) and where the print iu touahing the chooolute produce, grouse to striking 1 through. Thore could be odour problems.

FP 2?. Steel wool GMH Ind. Nt. Wt. Plastic bag. Reasonably attractive paok. Print flaking slightly in plaoes. Many burnt Lebanon 300gm due to inadequate strength of the plastic, (tom pack s till holding product.) FP 20. Napkins "Fine" 25 napkin , plastic bag. Heat sealed poly bag with an extremely well printed label oooupying the fu ll area of the napkin surface (inside). Good but would look even better in polyprop, FP 29. Serviettes Arab Sanitary 50 Plastic bag. Heat sealed but in almost every case the plastic has been burned through Paper Converting eerviettei due to poor control. FP 30. Uaceroni - - Plastic bag. Poly bag folded over and ntuplcd. Print flaking in nlacoo, Poor registration. FP 31. Nuts - - Plastic bags. A number of products on sale in plastic bags with only the price on. FP 32. Cheese - - . In freezar. No identification of any kind. Heat soaled. FP 33. Strawberry Jordan Fruit 200 ml Pouch. Doypac made in . Extremely attractively printed. (Not prodjeed in ju ic e Juice Cc. Jordan). FP 34. Diapers Arab Invest. G Overwrap. Poly bag, made up as a carrier bag but heat soaled. Very well printed. Int. Trade Co. Sent to supermarket in large plastic bag outer to ensure cleanliness. FP 35. D i a p e r s Nuqul Bros. 20 Plastic bag. Nicely printed. Heat sealed. Excellent presentation. dianere - 78 -

¿iiaarv 3

List of Equipment Available in the RSS Laboratories at Present

Physical or Chguical Property Equipment

1 . Tensile testing, paper, plastics, metals. Good, modem, ’HTSTROIT* tyne tester. 2 . Stiffness, paper & board. Stiffness tester* 3. Flat and ring crush. Platen press and holders. 4. Folding endurance. Yes. 5. Burst test. Yes. 6. Cobb value, eater absorption. Yes* 7. Smoothness and Porosity* Yes. Karl Frank and Parker Printsurf. 8. Mater vapour permeability* Yes. Patrs dish type, non-automatic. 9. Oil resistance time* Yes. Non-motorized 1ST. 10. Tear resistance. Yes. Elmendorf type. 1 1 . Puncture resistance, corrugated* Yes. Beach puncture tester. 12. Impact resistance. Yes. Davenport fallin g dart. 13. Printability tester. Yes. Non-motorized IGF. 14. Tin Stripper* Possibility in the metals laboratory. 15. Gloss, brightness, opacity* Yes. Reflectoraeter. 16. Gas permeability, plastic films. Yes. 17. Sample cutters, various. Yes. 18. \fepcur phase chromatography. Yes. In chemical laboratory. 19. Ash content. Paper & board. Yes. 20. Hardness. Yes. 2 1. Extension of paper under varying RH* Yes • 22. Stop watches, clocks etc. Yes* 23. Hunidity,temperature recorders etc. Yes • 24. Analytical balances. Yes* 25. Tcp loading laboratory scales. Yes • 26. pH meter for paper & board. Yes • 27. Conditioned laboratory for testing. Yes • - 79 - AITTT^C -1

List of 3/jd: tional 5^:iorient t-tat could Cocrolgmeni P:~s~nt ~^s.r.r=

Physical or Chgrr.iccl Property ?-r.d Troe o f 5'-ui~>cer-t

1 . Colour matching cabinet. 2. Oil and grease oeraeability. 3. Laboratory . 4. Treatment level of plastic surfaces. 5. Rub resistance of print. 6. U.V. exposure resistance. 7. Surface friction resistance. 8. Surface pick resistance. Dennison. 9. Moisture content, paper & board. 10. Plybond s trength, . 11. Creosability of carton board. 12. Crease folding resistance. 13. Paper curl. 14. Kicking. 15. Haze of plastic films. 16. Concurs fluting device. 17. Closure torque meter. 18. Palariscope type strain gauge. 19. Kail thickness (glass containers) . 20. Inpact strength " 21. Storage fa c ilitie s with conditioned RH and tonperature for shelf life determinations. 22. Storage cabinets with tumidity and temperature control, shelf life . 23. Pressure test for aerosols. 24. Stress cracking of plastic containers. 25. Vibration table for transit testing. 26. Inclined plane for transit tesving. 27. Compression tester for corrugated boxes, etc. 28. Drop tester, electromagnetic. 29. Quick release hooks. 30. Strapping equipment for transit sample preparation. 31. Platform weighing machine. 32. Shower cabinets. 33. Thermostatically controlled water baths. 34. Push pull gauges for making awn test equipment. 35. Vacuum desiccators for ERH measurements. RS8 are anxious to expand their activities in the package testing field. Survey of the Packaging Industry in Jordan

Reports on a Series of Visits made by UNIOC Consultant, John Salisbury. 23 February to 19 Varch and 16 August to 20 Septsnber 1SS2

20 September 19S2 - 81 - coMrarrs

2? Feb. Agriculture1 Pr«or!Pssi »i? Ltd. Can and food manufacturer. 1 Mar. Csnning Industries Co. Can and crown can manufacturer. 2 Mar. Jordan Pacer and Cardboard Co. Corrupted box manufacturer. 2 Mar. U.T.I. Carton and Packaging Co. Folding carton and label manufacturer. 4 Mar. I.C.A. Carton Factory. Foiiin? carton manufacturer. 5 Mar. 3adi Darwazeh and Co. Can manufacturer. 7 ïiar. White Plastics Ltd. Plastics container manufacturer. 3 Mar. Pst. Hisham Zabian. Plastics container manufacturer. 9 Mar. Jordan Plastics Ltd. Plastics container manufacturer. 10 Mar Royal Scientific Society. Technological Centre. (3 visits) 11 Mar. Shurrab Bros. Wooden box manufacturer. 13 Mar. Sultanelast. Plastic container manufacturer. 14 Mar. Jordan 7aiiey Co. Wooden box manufacturer and fruit and vegetable cacke 15 Mar. Arab Manufacturing Co. Pharmaceutical manufacturers. 16 Mar. Arab Organization for Standardization and Metrology.

13 Aug. Arab 3reveries. 3eer manufacturer. 19 Aug. The Industrial, C-. uercial and Agricultural Co. (ICA) (2 visits). 21 Aug. The Modern Flour M ils . Flour and macaroni manufacturer. 21 Aug. Jordan 3everage Co. Soft drink manufacturer. 22 Aug. Abdul Hakeem Shaaravri. Biscuit manufacturer. 22 Aug. Kabatilo Industry and Trading Est. Fruit juice manufacturer. 09 Shaarawi Chewing Gun Factory. 22 Aug. Amstel Brewery. 3eer manufacturer. 23 Aug. Jordan Dairy Co. Dairy products. 24 Aug. The Jordan Food Processing Co. 25 Aug. Dar A1 Dav/a. Pharmaceutical manufacturer. 29 Aug. Deeartment of Statistics. 20 Aug. Jordan Tobacco and Cigarette Co. 30 Aug. Jimco Match Co. 2 Sep. Jordan Polymers and Intermediate Chemicals Co. 4 See. Jordan Parer Sacks Co. 4 See. Arab Mineral Water Co. 5 See. Kotab Press Ltd. Carton manufacturer. 5 See. Zahi Confectioneries and 3iscuits Factory. 7 Sec. ’ acuity of Food Science - University of Jordon. 2 Sen. Jordan Paper Sack3 Co. Ltd. « 1 See. Kina Co. (Deterrents and cosmetics;. 1 2 c Paf-ia Industrial Co. (Woven clastic sacks). ' “5 Sen. Orient Plastic Co. - 52 -

To: Agricultural Processing Co. P.Q. Box 7314, Aomen, Jordan T e l. 92030 / 91276 / 91431 Telex 21274 Amo Jco Person seen: Mr. Salem A. Ckour, Sene Oats: 28 February 1982

A Government etmpany. :To know-how agreement with other companies. Srploys fifteen Aamn. people; includes four cualified food engineers, worker level varies up to 130 in peak season. It operates for oast, of the year on one shift but rises to two and three shifts during the tomato paste season. Graphics. This is done by a local designer but he lacks experience and he co-operates with the printers. System not satisfactory, really, because of the frecuent discussions necessary. (liote: some help on graphic design orinciples may well be an effective aid activity, e.g. ITC design workshop). The ccnpeny does not print its own tinplate or labels. Tinplate is imported, already coated with one lacquer applied to a ll products, mostly from France. Planning the imoortation of pre-printed (lith o) stock for the tomato paste; remainder w ill stay on paper labels. Seasons given were a desire to get away from labelling but inroroved appearance and wear resistance must be an important factor too. Four sizes of can in common use 52 x 41, 52 x 52, 73 :c I0f . x 114. Also make another very large can. Make mostly for awn use but some sold to other users (le ss than 20 per cer. of total output). Order tinplate only once per year and then they send samples to RSS for testing but only on thickness, tin coating thickness and the lacquer coating thickness. Total consunption per year, about 500 to 600 tons of tinplate, most from France and Japan. Order times can take up to three months from receipt of order to shipment of product. Only one lacquer is used for a ll products, consumption of other items does r.ot justify special lacquers in their opinion. Production is from tinplate stocks. Do not use aluminium coated grades such as Hi Top; they would welcome information on this topic (this could represent a useful saving). Should oe relevant to tomato paste. We should consider making part of xhe coming ITC project a link through to the selective, commiter-based, information service a. ?TRA for all future information on tomato caste tackaging. This will also be needed by the Jordan Vallsy Connany. - 83 -

Visit to: Canning Industries Oats: 1 March 1982 Person seen:

An a ll Jordanian company, no affiliation s, no know-how agraoawnts with other can makers abroad. They oaks cans but not for the food industry. They print too. They have the licence f o r Crown can manufacture. Make aerosol cans, many for the export market, the top and bottom being imported ready made. Graphic design is done in-house or can be peesed to designers inside or outside Amen. They do the art work and prepare the lithe plates. Any technical questions concerning suitability of plate of lacquers they refer to the supplier canpany. No custoners are well enough informed as to be able to specify th e ir requiranents in any detail. They make rectangular, one gallon cans and aerosol cans of two sizes, 52 and 5p. Tinplate is bought from Jinan, U.K. and France and more recently la ja ir (a source within the Arab Region). They nake from stock rather than buying special sizes and say that they have no problems. Buy four or five tines per year, about 500 tons each time. They have not considered aluminium coated steel as an alternative to tim late. All printing irks are imported from U.K. and Denmark and any technical service required is requested from these countries. There are no agents for printing inks in Jordan but they say they have few problems. Vbmishes are from the ink suppliers. Spider is imported fra aly, mixture not known. The PNC compound for lining the Crown caps is imported from Italy too. They do not have machines fo r lacouering, the plate is imported ready lacouered. Normally they do not check the incoming materials. The litk o machine takes 1m x 1m shssts and is a 4 -colour p ress. Also sp ec ia l machines fo r the Crown cap work. They have four stamping machines for Crown caps and twenty for can sides (semi-automatic). Utilization is two shift on printing (sixteen hours oer day). Three shift working is very difficult to arrange in Jordan.

Another printing press la on order. They have Soudronic welding machines (two) bought three years ago.

They are considering going into food can manufacture in 1??2/5:. Wien screw caps aro required, the top and the bottom of the can is Imported ready made as this is cheaper and better than local manufacture 0f these components. Principally oaks for the paint industry in gallon and sr.e litre sizes; there ire five taint factories tf any size. - 8

Visit to: The Jordan Paper and Cardboard ractorlas Co. Ltd P.O. Sox 1717 □ate: 2 March 1982 Amman — Jordan Person seen: Dr. Eng. A. Habaybeh, General Manager Tel. 22156/9 Visited by J. Salisbury» UNIDC Consultant Telex 21469 -erak JO,

This was the firs t paper mill in the Arab world. The mill is at present considering its future policies. There are two mills, total capacity of 10,000 tons per year of which 6,000 tens is at present being produced. Their chief concern at the moment is in developing an'improved fluting from waste which is collected in Jordan and imparted from Saudi Arabia and other nearby Arab countries. They wish to match the quality of imparted medium especially in its resistance to the effects of moisture. Techniques of Improvement, e.g. sizing, wax treatment are a l l being investigated, and outside help is being actively Bought. The problem is whether the passible modifications can be cam ea cue wi.nouc seriously ii nto-^f=rine with the drying capacity of the caper machine. They have had cocnlaints about the lack of compression resistance of their corrugated boxes and new offer two qualities of board. In general, however, the industry is reluctant to pay for better quality. They ao innor: some medium i f a better juaiixy can be justified and caia for.

They have had a U.K. expert working in the mill for the last year and have just renewed his contract for the next two years, therefore they fee l that they have the kind of technical help they need. Emphasis this last year has been net inly on plant maintenance, but seme development □ rob Ians have been tackled. The question of percent 3.-7° new to recycled pulp is one of their major projects. No know-how agreements, the company is independent. They do liaise with producers in Germany, Sweden, and Scam on technical matters. They do not at present have any useful laboratory test equipment but are in the orocess of obtaining this. (Tote: the UNIDO consultant w ill return to given an illustrated talk on the types of equipment used and give sources of sum ly). The whole question of laboratory fa c ilitie s has been discussed in the trade recently and the idea of setting up a common laboratory has been put forward. (Note: this would be unfortunate in some ways in view of the excellent laboratory in P.3S but speed and communication between such institution." and the industry is a severe and common problem to which an answer must be sought. The idea of test equipment that was available to Industry was raised and met with considerable enthusiasm}. The need for technical help with printing problems was mentioned, presumably the orooercies of the inks and materials. The question of a Regional Centre for Packaging in Morocco was raised but they do not feel at ore3ent that this has relevance to their needs, except perhaps in terms of training. They feel very much that progress comes from close proximity to the problems and continual effort. They expect to extend to three shift working this year, to improve delivery times. - 3S -

They are developing a section for producing their own stereos from photosensitive elastic. (Note: They might get together with 3u.ltar.plas who are doing the same thing. This w ill improve speed and quality offered. They have used some white-lined, corrugated hoard but do not think it appropriate to the market and prefer to discontinue; likely danand small. (The ouality of printed stock being offered seems cuite adecuate). They have a designer who works to customers' requizements and ideas. They advise on case style so as to keep material usage to a minimum. (Rote: Some help from UNIDO consultant may be justified here, especially i f aimed at the fruit and vegetable market for exports). Specifications - very few in Jordan who can specify needs, however they do have specifications from customers in Iraq, some of whan use up to twenty million boxes per year. The Iraqi company can check on the specification of delivered goods but few, i f arty, in Jordan are in this position. there are no import restrictions that cause any problems. They carry a large stoc.c of liner material, mostly from the U.S.A. but some from Sweden. No technical problems of any magnitude. Bad handling in the ports causes too high losses, especially on the soft grades for medium, last year approximately 50,000 tons of fluting was imported irom Spain. Printing inks are a ll imported. They have seme technical problems and technical help is not forthcoming when needed. Net rub is sometimes a problem. Help would be welcomed. Out of a total possible capacity of 14,000 tons of corrugated board per year at present, about 9,000 are being produced. The difference is not expected to be taker, up by the Jordanian market therefore more exports must be sought and this could call for improved technical hack-up. Last year 4,COO tons of this output went to the local market and the remaining 5,000 tons was exported. Obviously no shortage cf corrugated box capacity. aborts increased twenty per cent last year. The market for fruit and vegetables is seen as a huge potential, at present 100 cer cent of fruit and vegetables leaving Jordan are in wooden containers. This is out cf st« with world trends, at least in terras of imparts into sophisticated markets. Their estimate of the possible needs of the fru it and vegetable market is seven million boxes per year. They are studying the market at the present time (help from ITC may be oossibi here). A corrugated bom would cost about 220 fils compered to a wooden box of che same dimensions costing 300 fils . Biggest stumbling block is likely to be tne trade custom of selling by -weight (-wooden box is heavier;. (Note; Transfer to corrugated wj 11 be rapid i f a ir shipment to sophisticated markets grows). Adhesives: They use starch derivatives on the corrugmtcr and PVA ert the side seam. Also sane sodium silicate for the solid boxboard. duality of local PVA is reasonable (except for high pH th*t damages seme parts of the machine) but it is cheaper than imported and adequate for the job. Scdiun silicata has to be imported but efforts - 86 -

to change to P7A have net with worker resistance. No curtain or other coating of the board is carried out, however, they can buy in ready-coated liner i f this is required for a special ouroose (crobably the best approach; curtain coaters are often under-used, unless fruit and vegetable market develops raoidly). No raw material assessment is carried out at present, but w ill be soon. Present laboratory equipment : stereo microscope, Eimendorf tear tester, hand mullen, oven and rather old tensile tester. One line for preparing medium, three metres wide, is then reeled un as stock for the corrugator. Corrugator is one and one-half metres wide. Can be used for single face, double face and can make double wall in two passes but demand is very small. Creasing can be done on the machine, in machine direction only. One modern Simon Printer Slotter, 270 most of the time on three shift. A second Simon is being bought and should be in olace in three months. It produces 10,000 cartons per hour and glues the side seams. Cartons mass by conveyor belt to an automatic bander (plastic banding is imported). Printing is by flezo and is two colours. Typical products 150/130/150 (one of best), 125/150/l50* offering soon 161/130/161 (for emoort market), 150/130/200. No certification of cases for burst value or other nroperties. Specific tests not in use. Aonears to be a real desire to uograde the oroduct. - 37 -

Visit to: U.T.I. Co., Printing and Packaging P.C. Box 94

Dat p : 3 March 1V52 Madaca

This is a relatively new factory making folding cartons and some labels. It has two, new, two-colour Poland Litho cresses handling sheets uo to 7C0mm x 1,000mm. A large, 3obst cutting and creasing press (SP 102) which is ал excellent new platen machine ecuioped with automatic stricoing facility. The factory makes cartons mostly for the drugs industry, for clothes end for determents. The dies for The cutting and creasing cress are made in the factor*' from olywood sheet. One Bobrt straight line gluer. Most stringing is done hr hand. There is one small Pratika label orinter, one-colour, but used for multi-colour jobs. 3eautiful new guillotine, Polarmahr, was being used to cut off waste board from oriuted sheets. Design is 95 uer cent done by the factory its e lf and litho dates are crecarei on the oremises. The factory is running at only 25 per cent of its caoacity (one shift). They use three kinds of hoard, white-lined chicboard, double white-lined triolex and ( surerisingly) an Astralux, cast-coated board which is very hard to convert satisfactorily. Five hundred to 5C0 tons of board have been converted in this first year, a ll imported from Bulgaria, Austria, Sweden and other countries Printing inks are inmorted as four main colours from France, Germany and the U.K. and then blended to suit requirements. Adhesives, mostly PVA and co-oolymers, are imported from Germany. Thev do not use the local PVA because it has not given satisfactory results. Some cartons cade : shine detergents (pG million per year ?), tissue cartons (one-half million per year), drugs. Very litt le for export. They are ioing one order for Iracr but io not see any great ootential in it. Incoming boards tested for thickness and basis weight only. Board aooears to be too soft for detergent cartons. Said to be 350 gsm. Princioal croblems were nisregist»r due to necessity for multiple oasses and build-uo of cartteles on the elate (flu ff). The •'•uioaent ir. this factory is excellent but they will need some time or* oan froiu i*. - 58 -

Uotes on the discussion with Mr. Wadi Karadisheh of UTICO. Date: 1 Seotember 1982

Some of the major carton users mentioned were: detergent manufacturers, fine paper tissues, soft caper tissues (l>tr. Saouery), Amman Food Co., a chocolate company called Awazan (?), Eagle Co. (?), Напру Days and various shirt companies. They have done litt le so far in the way of exports out are negotiating a large label order for Iran. A large part of their business is in the detergent carton business. Their biggest oroblem is in getting good machine operators; they have one reasonably experienced man but they could use help in the training field. This need for training in packaging was stressed by Mr. Karadisheh; he places it more valuable than a laboratory function. The possibility of the U.K. retired executives scheme was discussed. Training at night time courses was suggested. He confirmed that one of their biggest problems was that crinted stock can be brought in at an advantage. (The position about duty is s t ill a litt le confused but it apoears to be 24 oer cent on unprinted board, that can reach uo to 42 per cent by the time the board reaches the factory. Up to very recently, the inraort duty on printed cartons was said to be only eighteen oer cent but that has been raised to the 24 oer cent charged on unorinted stock). It was mentioned that a Mr. Soussa of Printing and Packaging could give a good overall picture of the carton industry. - 39 -

Visit to: ICA Packaging Factory Date: 4 ¡'larch 1982 Part of a large groun, principally concerned with supplying packaging to the member factories of that groun, (30 per cent of output). They make their own litho elates and do own designs, art work and colour separation. Make litho and gravure plates,. Printing is on two Roland litho presses (one one-colour and one two-colour), and they have a 26 inch Chambón (six-colour) which can print (gravure), then cut and crease in line (mostly used for detergent cartons), Bobst cutting and creasing machine and a Bobst straight line gluer. Ho problem getting materials from abroad. Use white-lined chip, mostly the coated variety, although some solid white is used for the- pharmaceutical industry. Board comes principally from Finland, Austria and Spain. The 26 inch reels are used to feed the Chambón. Mostly 350gs® board on the gravure cress and from 250gsm to 550&sm on the litho cress. No lined board is used. Use about 3,000 tons cer year of both sheet and reel board. No problems in manufacture. No caper used. Printing inks come principally from France, Denmark and the U.K. (Coates Bros.). Inks brought in ready for use, not as concentrates. No problems with inks. Adhesives. F7A for the carton side seams comes mostly from Germany; have tried the local PYA and from Scain but not -found satisfactory. Only RIÍA test is for thickness. The plant is working more or less to its capacity. Plan to increase capacity within two years. Planning a four-colour litho machine. Cutting and creasing dies made in the factory, including those for the Chambón. Striccing can be automatic or by hand. Windowing not possible but is possible on the Bobst cutter and crea3er, as can embossing, if recuired. Only visual checks used for quality control. The cartons go mostly for the detergent industry but t! ey also make chocolate and 3cirit cartons. Some drug cartons. Only one major competitor, but there are a lot of small companies making cartons. They do not feel that outside help has anything to offer them. - 90 -

Visit to: 3adi Darwazeh and Co., can manufacturer Dakhliu Circle . P.0. Box 9353 Date: 6 March 1952 Zaran Centre Building Person seen: Marwan B. Da—/aseh, Gen. Director Amman, Jordan Visited by: J. Salisbury, COTDO Consultant Tel. o=339, Telex 22V5 i-EIBS JC

Office only visited as factory in the process of moving to new premises. An independent coma any, no know-how agreement with other producer. Only make cans for the oaint industry at oresent. Two years ago made cans for vegetable o il for export to Syria but market exoanded so much that they built a factory there in Damascas. Tinolate only is used, no Hi-top or similar. Last year used 1,200 tons of tinolate, estimate this year it w ill be 1,300 tons. Buy mostly from Prance, Carnot, •SO per cent. In general no problems with supplies, minor ones dealt with by discount, could get helo from supplier i f problem serious. Printing. All imoorted ready-printed. Customers send details of art work required, proofs prepared in Prance. About 30 designs in use. Ho solder used. Double seaming or welding (machine from Italy, not Soudronic). Laccuers. Fifty per cent of the tinolate is imoorted ready laccruered for the emulsion oaints. Raw material assessment. They check the temper in the laboratories of the steel factory and the RSS. Do not feel that there are any technological fa c ilitie s they need. Ho imoort oroblems, no restrictions. Suoply understands and suoolies their needs to their satisfaction. Have seven stamoing machines (six semi-automatic, one automatic). They run one shift for eight months of the year and two shifts for four months during the summer. To exoand into food cans, feel they need much more know-how. May try next year. Exports to Irac, 40 per cent balance to home market. Irac level could be increased to 70 per cent of output but they prefer to keen home market. Styles. They make one US gallon, ^ gallon, 4- gallon and one-eighth and one-sixteenth gallons traditional oaint can with lever lid. Problems. Hone they can't cone with. Construction faults need only visual inspection. Company is run by four brothers, tight control, go for the too end of the market. (He would welcome return visit to discuss users' comments). Point about cuality. In Lebanon there is a company 40 oer cent owned by Carnot of Prance which turns out high cualitv cans. The fact that Irac don't buy there is because Jordan can supply at a lower orice (iesoite this company being one of highest priced of the Jordanian can maker'3) . Hever use second choice or wasters. Use 0.2S/0.25 and temper three for the body, temper two for the l i i . Corrosion. Due to iry climate, Jordan and Irac, this 13 not a hazard.

Hote: Welding facility may be relevant to food canning. They could use RSS help in food canning later. - 91 -

Visit to: '.-faite Plastics Factory Ma'our Hoad. Date: 7 March 1992 P.0. Bom 1909 Person seen: Samir M. Bughiaii, General Manager Amman, Jordan Mahmoud K.H. Dwaib, Dow Chemical Co. Tel. 75515 Visited by: J. Salisbury, UNIDO Consultant

Company specializes in oots and trays from polystyrene. Two Polystyrene casting extruders dooms wide, 'Web is thermoformed on one of four machines into tubs and trays. Waste is reground and recycled (said to be re-used three times).

* Printing on one offset machine using metal stereos. Stereos made in Amman from art work drawn ud by White Plastics. Styles: snap-on lids for most but some caps supplied for heat seal lidding (customer arranges for lidding material separately). Also make egg trays. Could operate in colours too, but rarely or never done. Independent, no know-how agreement. Use 500 tons polystyrene per year bought from Dow Chemicals in France, Holland and Belgium, Italy, Greece and sometimes Yugoslavia. Problems. None - no import restrictions. Printing inks (four-colour cress) bought abroad, in Germany. No problems. Moulds. Some made locally, some imported. No coating or co-extruded material used. No checks on incoming materials, check odour (nose) and cracking (scrueeze) on finished product. I f more tests needed they could go to the RSS, but do not see much need. No fac ilities for plastic container/product testing, supplier advises on applications. Dow Chemical do not have technical centre in Jordan yet, cut Plan one soon, shall have a technical office here in Amman. Dow technical man visits the factory three times per year and Dow offer training courses. Sxoorts. Cne-third of output goes to Arab Region, mainly to Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and Irac. Future for exports difficult to forecast. Laminates. One new company in Jordan. Plastic films are 3aid to be made by ten major companies, perhaps 30/40 small companies. But mostly HD and LD polyethylene. One company said to co-extrade black and white. 2noloys thirty people. Biggest end users are daily products (.yoghurt) and fruit juices, about 75 ter cen of output for two. Operate two shifts but second shift only about jO per cent of time Have scare capacity. Three shift operating not popular with the work force. Competitors. Four; this company first in. Biggest competitor ia Sultar.nlas. Need information about applications of plastics to foodstuffs packaging. Specifications. No customers pan specify. Choose from range. No testing with the product. No oontainer3 of this kind are imported. Electronics. No problems. Typical delivery time - 25 days. Need to check position about monomer content. - 92 -

Visit to: Hst. Hisham Eabian Date: 8 March 19°2 Person seen:

The comoany makes clastic bottles, jars and caps. They also make the closures by injection moulding. They use HD and LD oolyethylene, PVO, polystyrene and col.ycrooylene (the latter for the cans). The factory is part of a grouc and two factories make cackaging. The FTC bottles are used for mineral water and shamooos, using about 50 tons per year. The resin is brought from Dow in Prance but Arab region LD coly is starting to become available. LD poly, use about 30/35 tons per year. HD about 100 tons per year and PVC about 50 tons oer year. Polyrrooylene and colystyrene are considerably less. Taiwan is starting to offer clastic bags, caps and containers in Jordan. They say that they have no croblems, technically or in imcortin.g their needs. Stress cracking occurs sometimes. Printing. This is by silk screen. All inks from Prance. ”0 problems excect with Italian sucolies. The bottles are flame tested before crinting, the ecuicment for this was made locally. Ho R.M.A. testing. They have four German blow moulding machines and four injection machines (cacs). They blow film (a ll LD) and this is for agricultural use. Make bags uo to one metre and uo to ten micron; used mostly for clothing. One semi-automatic French crinting machine, and some small manual machines. Caoacity - two shifts, twenty-four hours cer day. 3nploy aooroximateiy eigr een oeocle. Exports less than five per cent at present. Humber of connanies making this kind of clastic croduct is said to exceed 60, however, there are only three or four large ones. This comnany says they are about tenth in size in Jordan. The two largest ire Jordan Plastic and the Hast and West Co. Hone of their customers scecify their needs; choose from existing shares. Moulds can be made in Jordan but there is only one man with the necessary know-how and the majority are made outside the country. A real need. Rarely use RSS. Delivery from one week to three months ( i f mould has to be made outside). Ho efforts to standardize sizes apparently, which would help increase run length. Most containers in Jordan are crinted. Products mentioned were cleaners, 3hamcoos, milk, wide-mouth jars, cooking o il, iiswashiiwr liquid. - 93 -

To: Jordan Plastics Company P.0. 3ox 2394- Amman, Jordan Tel. 73144, 73U5, Telex 21712 JPC Person seen: Ea.ji Abuaitah - Technical Manager Date: 9 March 1982 The company is independent and has no know-how agreement with any outside company. It is one of the biggest and oldest in Jordan, founded 22 years ago. Haw materials are polyethylene, LD and HD, uses about 1,500 tons oer year. Polystyrene is extruded into webs for in-house thermoforning operations by customers, using about 4C0 to 500 tons oer year. P7C, small quantity, about 30/40 tons oer year, used for special containers made to customers' specific requirements. Polyurethane for foam, none of which goes into packaging operations. Polypropylene for injection moulding, some food containers. Polythene bought almost exclusively from Germany through the Dow Chemical Company, thev have few technical problems and those that they have, can be dealt with from the information given by suppliers. They do not feel that they need any assistance technically frcm outside, especially on the processing side. They do not print any of their present materials although may do so starting next year. 'They have tried Gulf States LD polyethylene and found it to be quite good but they do not accept that it is available at the price advantages euoted by other companies. They have not tried ITylon or Polyesters. ?To raw material assessment checks done on incoming materials. I f they needed any specific technical tests, they would go to the HSS, although they say that they have not yet had need to do so (not what HSS say). They have done some limited tests on plastic containers intended for food use but these were strength tests and not concerned with the suitability of the material for the intended use. The processes they operate are: 1. The blowing of film of which about 20 per cent goes into agriculture and about 30 per cent into packaging, half of which goes out as finished '■cqr and tb« remainder as film. 2. Pilm blowing units of a not very modern or sophisticated kind. Bags

can be made up to 200 micron. 3. Injection moulding. This is a huge establishment having eighteen machines covering the full range from 1C0gm unit to four and one-half kilogram units. They have slitting facilities for the film and two bag making machines. They do not make closures on any scale, just a few by injection moulding and a3 far as z'r.ey know, there i3 no specialist company in Jordan iealing v/ith closures. Seventy per cent of the injection moulded products go to export within the Arab Region, 30 “er cent to the home market. In blow nouliing,

i - ?d -

60 per cent goes to export, e.g. the 30 litre jerry cans of which they export 200,000 to 250,000 per year. The bigg.st quantities go to Iraa although some injection moulded SO litre contaire~s vo to Saudi Arabia. There is very litt le quality control on the products. Pew customers can specify their needs. They choose by coming to the factory, looking at existing products and choosing one that appears to fit their needs. ?

Visit to: The Royal Scientific Society (RSS) P.C. Box 5945 Date: ’ 0 March 1932 Person seen: Mr Xhalid Shanna-5 (Packaging) Tel. 344301 Hr. S. Kafaf (Plastics)

This society was founded in 1971 hut the ecuioment for the oackaging laboratory was out in in 1975* They serve Jordan and other countries as well. Funded from the Government but also by orojects paid for by the industry. Have laboratories soecializing in many subjects, including chemistry, pacer and packaging, elastics, metallurgy, electronics, textiles, engineering, industrial chemistry, ceramics and materials for construction. Qualified peoole in each discioline are employed. The packaging laboratory was provided by the German Government with test ecuioment which included: tensile tester of the Instron tyoe (Amshler), paper extension measurement cabinet (Frank), Beach tyoe puncture tester (Frank), micrometer for oaper and board thickness (Carl Schroder), air oermeability tester, flex duration tester (Carl Schroder), ovens, smoothness tester (Frank), burst tester (Mullen tyoe), tear tester (ELmendorf tvoe), small comoression cress for edge crush, ring crush and flat crush, circular sample cutters, stiffness tester (similar in design to the Taber), IGT for absorotion and pick tests, wicking test (Carl Schroder), cuadrant scales, Patra dish MVTR test ecuioment, Parker Princsurf for smoothness tests, abrasion tester (for textiles really), flexibility tester (TMI tyoe by Carl Schroder), projection microscooe (Projectina by Heerblugg of Switzerland), various micrometers. The laboratory is fu lly conditioned at 55 oer cent RH and 23°C and the facilities are very good and uo to date. Conditioned cabinet (Carl '.-Zeiss), fallin g dart imoact. Hardness testers (two), polariscooe for stress melt flow index (Frank), gel time tester (Frank), sanole cutting cress, and dies of various kinds, recording ecuioment for RH and temperature, balances, thin sanole cutter (Leitz), moisture content of resins (Hergeth), (Carl Schroder), burst oressure tester for elastic oioes (Frank). They use mostly DlH standards but some ASTM, some F2FC0 and 3ome 3SI and some Jordanian standards. There i 3 3 .metallurgical laboratory but they would welcome assistance in the technology of the can industry; at the moment they are limited to tinolate thickness and coating thickness. A new laboratory is being introduced to house oaoer and cackaging activities. Considerable discussion took olace on the o o s s ib ility of introducing a laboratory just for cackaging (not oaoer). './hat is envisaged is adding transit test “ cuioment such as; vibration tester, inclined olane, comoression tester, and the storage cabinet3 associated with shelf l i f e testing of oacked oroducts.

This would be a useful service but such 3 laboratory might be more effective if closer to the enterorises that would be using the service, e.g. the elastics industry. (The consultant could not see the advantages of separating oaoer.)

- 96 -

Second visit to: The Royal Scientific Society Amman, Jordan Date: Ip March 19З2 Person seen: In?. Abdalla Jaradat, Director of the Mechanical Thgineering Dent. 7isited by: Jchn Salisbury, UUIDO Consultant.

The RSS is an independent, non-orofit making organization, out it is regarded as the technical arm of the Ministry of Industry. Approximately fifteen per cent of its budget is provided by the Government directly, 40 per cent obtained from its services, approximately 40 per cent from projects with the Government and with private industry and a small percentage is scent on basic research. Laboratories founded in 1970 and some help has been received from the German Government and OUTDO. Certification. This is a role played by the RSS and it is anticipated that this w ill be extended to packaging. They help with the technical facets of ruaiity control and standardization as agreed. One of their principal aims is improving the industry's ability *0 specify their needs accurately. Relationship to the Regional Packaging Centre in Morocco. They feel that the distance may prove too great for active involvement in investigational work. However, they do accept that training activities could be helpful and certain specification work should be co-ordinated from such a central point. Help with information is a possibility. They feel that the link between the RSS and the local industry is close after the past ten years. One problem (as always) is more on making and saving money than in technological improvement. Pharmaceutical industry was mentioned as an exception to this rather general rale. RSS see a role in training industry and active courses take place in solar energy, computer use and ir chemistry (in conjunction with the local university). Training in Packaging technology would be a logical extension. However, industry is not ready to pay high fees for training therefore costs for training must be kept to the minimum. Some reservations about training at regional centres in that participants are often at widely differing standards and are not always those who could best benefit from the course being presented, (llote: this supports the contention that oerhans the training courses should be prepared at regional level, but presented at national level, e.g. viieo training courses). Regional training can be expensive too. The Paper ar.d Packaging laboratory is re la tiv e ly new and help •would be welcomed with the ргосезз of establishing its functions and its relationship to industry. A two/three man-month mission appeared to be needed. The possibility of a laboratory ®'-uioped to do transit testing has net been considered but this uould be necessary. Kelp from GUIDO in defining and specifying such a laboratory was suggested.

J 97

Visit to; SEURRA5 Bros, and Co. 3ruce Pact. Date: 11 March 1932 21 Juwaidah Person seen: Mr. JTasr Shurrab - owner Amman, Jordan Visited by: J. Salisbury, UUIDO Consultant Tel. 75'05/1» ?!:•:. 21C56 Mercou

This comoany makes wirebouna wooden bores. Independent comoany, no external know-how agreement. Only one making these boxes in Jordan. Factory started in 1978 and started producing in October 1979- 90 oer cent of the output is used in Jordan, ten per cent is exported, mostly to Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf. Export market thought not to hold great potential. Problem with 21 per cent customs import duty on the wood, 32 per cent duty on hardboard and 33 per cent duty on wire. Temporary import allowed on those cases due for export. D ifficult to comoete with the Jordan Valley Company due to the la tte r's tax freedom. Company thinking of pulling out of Jordan for these reasons. At rresent running only one shift and at less than one-half caoacity. Could go to two shifts. 3ozes go to distribution centres in Jordan, May to November, mostly in the north; in the other months mostly in the Jordan Valley. Products packed are entirely fruit aid vegetables. A ll wood is imported through Syria. Long delays at the oort of A;.-uaba forced this but considering changing back because of improvements. Aooroximately three-cuarters of the palletised raw material suffers some damage from transit handling although losses are less than five per cent. Problem of lack of ooen- sided trucks makes palletised stock handling in Jordan d iffic u lt. Unloading in ports said to be very rough. Containerization w ill help in future. «000 has the advantage of greater resistance to damage during land transport to other countries in the Arab Region, a demanding journey. Total usage of twelve million considered an understatement, could be as himh as eixhteen million even for the tomato boxes. Standardization of sizes has not been wholly successful. Official Jordan standard not acceptable to a ll customers forcing modification to wood pieces imported to the correct size (four saws keot busy doing th is). There seems tc be a need to tighten this situation ruiless deviations are shown zo be for good reason. Perhars checks on exported goods would lmrove compliance, i f this is considered heirful to the zrade as a whole and the country. Sizes mentioned were -l3Cmm :: 27Cmm :c 250mm and ;30mm x 30Cmm :c 150um referred to as 'winter' and 'summer' sizes. (Mote: consider standardization only of bottom dimensions so as to fit oallets, containers, etc. Perhaos better to leave the height of the ho:-: as a variable for agreement between surriier and user, to core with seasonal variations, rroduct variations and rersor.ai ".reference. Jordan soecificaticn gives four sizes.) - 96 -

'food used is beechwood, with the box ends of hardbcard. cardboard bought only from Rumania, beechwood bought in ‘Turkey (rather low duality), Portugal, and Tigoslavia. ’fire bought from China, Rumania, Prance and Belgium. Buy aoproximately 5,000 cubic metres of timber oer year, ready cut. Present outuut in the order of six million boxes per year. A ll boxes shinned fla t to user. Moisture control of the wood has not bien found necessary due nerhans to long nre-use storage. Two semi-automatic wirebound box making lines, in large factory. Porty-eight workers. Line changes have been reduced from every week to one every three months. At present making about eight sizes. Bo not use for finished stock because customers not ecuiooed with fo rk lift trucks. ITote: The Jordanian standards were set in conjunction -.with other Arab countries, onerating through the Arab League. 7isit to: Sultan Plast. Ind. Co. P.0. Bor. 15147 Date: 13 March 1982 Amman, Jordan Person seen: Abdelghani Sultan, General Manager Tel. 86431, 34101 Visited 07: John Salisbury U1TID0 Consultant Cable - Sultanoiast.

This comany makes, alnost exclusively, tubs, nrays and the lids that go with then. The lids are usually snap-on type although one customer is heat sealing a laminate that he himself is importing. There is a near company in Jordan that has been formed to make such laminates. Policy ••rill be to concentrate on . !To bottle blowing. Offer a range of sizes, from 100cc up to one litre . Within each size, various shares are offered from existing moulds, e.g. in the 100cc there are five different shaoes and tyoical volumes are 1CCcc, 125cc, 200cc, 250cc, 50Ccc and one litre . In the future, it is just oossible they may go in for injection moulding. Tyoical delivery time is two to three weeks, i f the moulds are available. The bulk of their output goes to the oackaging of yoghurt, juice and ice-cream. Produce approximately 53 million containers per year. Polystyrene only is used, no F/C, no polypropylene. Using about oCO to 7U0 tons per year. Polystyrene comes from Holland, France, Germany, Belgium mostly su.plied by Dow, Hoersch, BASF and Atochemis (French). JTo oroblems acquiring the resin they need or technical problems in its conversion and use. The General Manager had wide experience abroad before starting this connany. Mo sources of resins within the Arab Region are used or known. Some moulds are made in the factory, some by an outside contracter :n Jordan and some of the bigger, more complicated ones, made in West Germany. Two tyres of polystyrene are used. The resin is firs t extruded by casting a continuous web, a two layer co-extruder, the outer layer containing antistatic agents. German machine and like a ll the machines in the factory, it was modern and well maintained. Factory layout very good. All the web material is used within the factory; at present none is sold for customers' inolarrt machines. Planned to nut in additional machines this year, nossibly raising the outnut by 25 ner cent. The noly3tyrene weo is then thermoformed on or.e of two very large, multihead ther:~oforming machines, modern, German and semi-automared. These make the nots and trays. - 1C0 -

If printing is required, this is done on one of two, three-colour, offset printing lines at present operating from zinc stereos but later this Tear they will change to photosensitive plastic elates. liaohines change sizes perhaps two or three tines per north, or less. Inks are bought from Greece, '.iest Germany and Italy and a small quantity from the U.K. 3ought ready to use (note: consider concentrate blending). A four-colour printing line w ill be introduced shortly.

A complex could can cost up to 33»000 JD3 for uhree. The art work can be produced in the factory to the customer’ s requirements. Customer tends to take one of the* existing lines because of the high expense of new moulds. Approximately 20 per cent of the output goes for export to Irac, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Customers have no known technical facilities for quality control, development tests, shelf life tests, etc. Customers do not specify their needs in detail. The factory is independent, not part of a group and has no know-how agreement with a company abroad. BASF send a technical man periodically and i f required. They do not feel that they need technical help. Few problems, •would rely on the supplier. Possible exception to this would be compatibility studies, (ilote: In view of the desire to spread the use of plastics in the Arab Region, a study of the application of thermoformed containers to food packaging would be useful). They operate three shifts per day, 24 hours and have approximately 30 employees. Uo problems with the electricity supply. They use large quantities of corrugated boxes for shipment of finished goods. Bought from the Lebanon and Jordan but Jordan material considered to be too easily crushed and more expensive than that from the Lebanon. Damage to exported Pots and trays does take place but at a reasonably low level, certainly less than five per cent. - 1 0 1 -

Visit to: The Jordan Valley Co. Date: 14 March 1?S2 Person seen: Mr. N. 3veritt (Consultant)

This is a Government company concerned with the improvement of the vegetable produce in the Jordan Valley. It is one of three grading stations and has a wood box factory. The products include: tomatoes, aubergines and cucumbers. It is the only wood box manufacturer in the Jordan Valley although a new co-ooerative is said to be opening a new grading station shortly. At oresent aoproxinately 20 oer cent of the racked output goes to Jordanian markets; the other 30 per cent goes to export, Lastly Syria, the Lebanon, Iran ana the Gulf States. All goes out by road in refrigerated trucks; no air-freight at the present time. It is planned that most of the output from the Valley w ill rase through the grading station. Last year, in Kay/June they exported 30,000 tons of tomatoes and over last year about 4,000 tons of cucumbers. Ferrers and smash also. The wood for the boxes is brought in ready cut from Spain and Holland. The wood is high cmality thin plywood for the sides and hardboard is used fer the base. Triangular cross-section wood is cut on site for the four corner costs. Wood is ^referred partly because it is traditional but mainly because of the difficult conditions during road transport to other parts of the Arab Region. Protection is better than that afforded by corrugated. Plastic are used for harvesting. The dimensions of the boxes are as set by the Arab League Standards Organization on which the Jordan standard has been based. It is considered satisfactory although variations in the size of the fruit can cause problems. It might be better i f the length and width of the base was standardized but the height left to suit the individual fru its. The oresent dimensions fit the 1,200mm :c 1,CQ0mm oallet. There are two semi-automatic box making lines, modern machinery out in approximately one year ago. These are eaoable of turning out 1,000 boxes per hour and run tv/o shifts of six hours each. The outout from each line is in the order of 10,000 to 12,000 boxes per iay. normally one line w ill run on one size. Aooroxima+ely 50 oeoole employed in the box factory. Problems with the wood are restricted to dimensional problems. Solid wood had been tried but waning caused mrchine running problems. Dutch machinery. The small box takes ten kilograms and the large size twenty kilograms. It is a very strong iesign. Another two line3 are to be out in during the next two months bringing the capacity of the factory to some 50,000 boxes oer day. There w ill eventually ce tv/o grading lines, one canable of ten tons oer hour, the other for four ton3 oer hour. - 102 -

A tomato oasme factory is under construction. ■The traditional Lebanese apple cox was used but this was too deep and considerable damage to the fruit was experienced. I f air-freight is introduced, change to corrugated w ill become necessary cut this is not considered likely for several years. A usage of fifteen million wooden boxes oer year is anticipated. Wooden pallets are made in Jordan. There anpear to be faw problems with this company. However, fruit and vegetable marketing is highly competitive and fle x ib ility w ill be recuired. At the present time the weight of the fille d box is not standardized and a great many of the boxes are overfilled which leads to excessive damage of the fru it. A box that nominally holds fifteen kilograms may be packed with from thirteen kilograms to nineteen kilograms, due to irregular sizes. 7ery few of the boxes normally arriving in the market are narked with the weight, only those that have been through the grading house. Other countries in the Middle East Region export by air to Europe in corrugated boxes, e.g. Turkey and the Lebanon. The boxes cost 370 f i l s for the large and 250 f i l s for the small. !To covered storage at present for finished boxes which restricts the cuantity that can be made up, hence delays can occur when collections are being made. ■There is a real need to upgrade the xuality of exports, for the fruit and the packaging. - 103 -

Visit to: The Arab Pharmaceutical Manufacturing F.O. Box 2649 Co. Ltd. Bult Date: 15 March 1?32 Amman, Jordan Person seen: Brig’.-General Farouk S. Onari Tel. PVT 42112 Visited by: John Salisbury, UNIDO Consultant Tlx. 21315 APMC Jo

Hie company produces pharmaceuticals, 55 of which are patented nedicines and 200 are based on accepted world Pharmacorias. Twenty-seven oer cent of the 1931 output went to Jordan, 73 rer cent went to other Arab countries, principally Iran and Syria but also to East, North and Jest Africa. Pioneers in the Arab Region manufacture. Comoletely independent. Glass. Long history of buying from Beatson Clarke, U.K. Excellent product, excellent back-uo. No orobleas. Bought in millions from the standard range of design and these run well on the existing fillin g and packing lines. Cans. Very few used, only for 5CO and 1,000 tablets, intended for institutional and Armed Forces use. Lever lid type, lid in soldered (soot) to ensure it staying in olace. Poly bag inside. Cans bought locally tc their specification, laccuered inside. No oroblems. Corrugated boxes. 3ought in the 100,000*3, the majority from Cyorus. Have tried local oroduct but have had poor results. Quality was ooor, orint cuality poor, mistakes often made in the text, no cuality control. Coming year they w ill buy one-third of their recuirements locally but are not convinced that the standard will be uo to their recuirements. The board is weak, lacking not only compression strength, but having collansed under load, w ill often tear. Dimensional accuracy is poor. They fear that there is an urgent need to uograde the local 3unoly. Specifications. The company has an engineering deoartment that can prepare art -work and draw uo specifications for a ll their needs. No outside help necessary. Plastics. Plastic films. PVC is bought reeled for blister packaging from V/estem Europe (three or four countries). LD poly used for liners and bags, bought locally, no problems. Laminates. Cannot be bought from the Arab P.egion, a ll imported from V/estern European countries in large ruantities. A second factory -will be opened shortly that has fifteen ‘ imes the capacity of this one, therefore the demand will be considerable. P lastic b o ttles, not used. Thermo formings r.ct used. Aerosols not used yet, cut will be in the new factory. Plastic strapping used on the automatic machine. Polypropylene bought in Turose. No suitable local supplies. Plastic saps. Tear strip type bought in Europe. - 10A -

Cartons. Used in millions. Bought mainly frcr Cyprus. Have tried, to use local stock, but there are considerable improvements needed. Creasing is moor, high folding resistance and much cracking on the creases especially where overprinted. ClTote: The company likes to use Astralux board for their cartons. This is a highly specialized board that is hard to print and crease. I f they changed to a good clay-coated solid white, the drop in aDpearance would be small but the improvement in local cartons could be dramatic.) Prices are prohibitively high for local supplies. Small cartons racked on automatic machinery, big ones by hand. They feel that the local suppliers need to improve considerably, bcth in cuality and in control over printing errors. Labels. Vast number used but a ll bought outside Jordan. Local suppliers make too many mistakes in both labels and oaanhlets, an extremely serious problem in pharmaceuticals. Small print gives local suppliers problems. Adhesives. These are used on some operations but self-adhesive labels are preferred more and more for their speed and certainty. Sacks, "ot used. IGCS not used. Pallets used sometimes but not often. Glass. . t was said that Jordan has silios deposit3 capable of making excellent glass containers. As their needs will be very great in the foreseeable future, they would like to see this industry developed. Use RSS a good deal in pharmaceutical manufacturing side. ITo contact *o date on packaging side. Peel RSS need to promote its fa c ilitie s more; they would be interested in packaging help. Planning to put in their own test equipment for packaging materials and it was agreed that the consultant would give a talk to their engineering department during the second phase of the mission in September.

I - 10S -

Visit to: The Arab Organisation for Standardisation Annan, Jordan and Metrology TIr. 22do3 Date: 16 March 1932 Persons seen: Dr. Sawah, Director Dr. Awny, Assistant Technical Director Mr. Alam 31 Den Mr. Saudy Visited by: Mr. John Salisbury, GUIDO Consultant Remon Halteh, Head of Quality Control Dept., Standards Inst.

The Regional Headquarters for the Arab Organization for Standardization. It is from here that the Regional Committee for Packaging, Ho. 122, operates through its Technical Secretary. Most of the Arab States are members but the most accive are Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco. Periodically there are meetings to consider the application of new standards to the Arab Region. So far eleven standards have been issued by the various committees. The Technical Committee 122 has issued two on Pictorial marking, (137 and 139). Prom the Committee, a regional standard for metal containers (hermetically sealed) has been issued. A related organization is the Arab Organization for Industrial Development and in conjunction with then, a seminar is being held in Morocco in May 1932 dealing with Training for Quality Control in Packaging Industries. It is honed to produce a manual on this tonic, starting with the material from this seminar. There was a long discussion on the various ways that training in packaging could be achieved and the Technical Director raised the question as to whether it was possible for video techniques to be applied to this problem. It v:as felt that this training problem is one of the biggest facing the Arab Region. The Director asked for articles on the subject of training in packaging and for recommendations as to suitable journals. The consultant agreed to forward this information. - 10$ -

7isit to: Arab Breweries Go. P.0. 3ox 590 Date: '2 August 1^32 Amman, Jordan Person seen: 7.A. Ghazal, 3rewery Manager Tel. 31121

This brewery makes only beer, under licence from a German brewery. Only competitor is Aastel in Jordan but some beer is being imported too. They make beer for the hone-market and for export; out o f five million litre s brewed last year, approximately 25 per cent was exported. Approximately SO per cent is sold in heavy, returnable bottles, the rest ir. cans which go mostly for export but some is sold in draught containers. Scruipment can be described as medium speed, fille r s at about 3,(300 bottles per hour and the can line fillin g at about 13,5CO cans per hour. Technical information and back-uo comes from the licencing agreement which gives them access to information from other parts of the world via companies and consultants. Their bottles are green in colour which is unusual because brown is a better colour free a technical point of view. They found, however, that the market preferred green and this has since become an important marketing facet. They get about fifteen trios from each bottle which is craite good. There is a deposit of eighteen f i ls (about 50 TJ.S. cents) which is high. They have the usual problems of unpleasant liquids occasionally being put into bottles and then later returned, but this is not a serious problem. Their Crown cork closures are bought from Belgium. There is a local supplier but they have not been approached and assume that no supplies are available. In general local supplies of packaging materials tend to be of a higher cost and somewhat inferior t^ imported materials. They Put this down to short run lengths, and to lower production efficiency. However, another factor is the taxation applied to incoming raw materials 'which makes local industry less competitive. (Some raw materials carry as much as 40 per cent import duty.) Glass bottles are imported mostly from aii-Eurooean countries but recently Turkey has offered a very good price and good cruality. Turkey can deliver by land which leads to less breakages than when imports cone through Acuaba. They are interested in the new glass factory Proposed far Jordan and expect to benefit from it but are not certain if their needs will be c'tered for. An important "uality point is that the inside of the bottle must be free of scratches or organic matter can be cranoed there and cause infection of the product. Another is resistance co the pressure built up during pasteurization The bottles from Turkey are brought in uacked in ready urinted corrugated cones. In some ways, this is unfortunate as these could be supulied in Jordan. However, it would be better i f corrugated bones were not used at a ll but distribution was carried out in clastic crates. The canital cost of introducing this system would be in the order of 150,000 JDS. 3reakage of imports can be in the order of five oer cent but two and one-half per cent is closer to the average. There is cuite a large cuantity of broken glass available but there is no organized system for collection, therefore it goes to waste. This is ’unfortunate because it could be recycled. The existing glass furnaces could recover it and when the new glass factory gets under way, this w ill become an imuart ant source of raw material. Methods for recovery and storage should be considere’ now. Corrugated boxes are used only once or twice. Some assistance in ecuiuoing the factory with clastic crates might be considered to avoid this wastage. Snorts go mostly by road to Irac in normal trucks. Breakage is not a uroblem. Cans are of the three-oiece construction, enamelled inside and have a tear-off tab. These are imuorted from Greece as they cannot be made locally. Last year some two and one-half million cans were used by this brewery alone. Importing of cans is unsatisfactory in that the freight volume is so high (hence costly) and the storage space needed urior to use is a uroblem. Local manufacture would be welcomed but manufacture is difficult technically. Obtaining supplies is not a uroblem with many sum Her countries available. Any growth in this industry w ill be in eicuorts as the two breweries have saturated the local market. Therefore the uackaging needed w ill be cans, light-weight bottles (glass) or as an outside chance clastic (PUT) bottles. Plastic bottles are technically feasible but the market 'will need a long time to accent this container and therefore it should uerhaus be ruled out as a uossibility for Jordan. The best bet is urobably light-weight, one-trio. glass bottles made in the new glass factory as beans the most suitable for exuort markets. The comuany would welcome the facility of a packaging laboratory for re a lity assessment of incoming containers and for occasional trouble shooting activities. This has to be done using roreign laboratories at the uresent time, i f and when it u roves necessary. The only standard relevant to this industry at the or“ sent time is that the iarye container sha ll contain ayCcc and the can shall contain 32Ccc. To or'*T.sr 108 - 1

V is it to: The In d u stria l, Commercial and A g ric u ltu ra l Co. P.0. 3ox oOOo Ltd. Amman, Jordan I.C.A. Tel. Ruseifa 5, 7 Person seen: Dr. Ahmad T. Kassim, Manufacturing and Telex 4.U3J, ICA JO Planning Manager Cables ICA Date: 19 August 1932

This large company includes amongst its products detergents b is c u its paints soaos ice-cream snampoos orange juice washing loaders They are the biggest manufacturer of household products in Jordan and have a licencing agreement with Unilever and therefore have access to excellent information on Packaging matters. Suppliers often do not meet these specifications, however. Packaging used includes cans, plastic bottles and cuos, folding cartons, caos of a ll kinds, corrugated boxes, labels, metal tubes, plastic films and laminates, adhesive tapes, adhesives. Plastic Bottles Plastics used include LD and HD Polyethylene, PVC - they have cuite a lot of problems, e .g .: 1. Several deliveries of clastic bottles suspected of incompatibility with an acid lavatory cleaner causing it to change colour after some weeks. 2. Print on the bottles often lacks adequate adhesion, especially ■when contaminated with detergent liquids. 3. Leakage from coorly fittin g cans. Shamcoo bottles supplied recently had not been made as a good match to the supplied sample. Case in iisoute and the helo of a packaging laboratory would be welcomed in such cases, in establishing exactly where the differences existed. Plastic bottle suppliers blame their ink suppliers when ink adhesion is below standard. Again a testing laboratory could be of value. The role of RSS laboratory was discussed but they feel that by the research and development nature of the RSS the staff are not geared to the needs of industry 'which are more for reality control testing and the need for results to be made available in a verv short time. They feel strongiv that any laboratory would have to be cart of their awn organization or be privately owned i f an impact on the day to day problems of the industry was to be made.

(This point to be followed up by the consultant.) 109 -

Sources o? surely have been from the Lebanon up to recent times but this is now d ifficu lt. The "'roblem with local supplies is that they are only offered a restricted range of moulds. The Lebanon was able to offer a wide range of existing moulds which meant that the company could obtain small ruantities, e.g. 50*000 bottles in design close to that recuired whereas a local company -would require very high mould costs. Another important point is that established moulds orovide bottles and cans that are trouble free-, when a new mould has to be originated there are always teething problems. At first sight this is unfortunate from Jordan's point of view, but it does highlight the value of specializing within the Arab Region rather than axtemoting to do too much within a given country and not doing many things w ell. The company has installed two new blow moulding machines and -.nil be making some of their own bottles in the near future. 3ottles and cans are bought from the same company -whenever possible, but some specialized cans have had to be bought from European sources. Attempts to buy these from cheaper sources have led to considerable losses. Corrugated 3cxes Two sources. The Jordan Pacer Company (about 50 cent) and the Lebanon. The cuality of the local supply is not considered up to that bought from the Lebanon at comparable price, in that they lack the compression resistance, there are more ink rub problems and the cuality of the illustration is said to be inferior.

The company has recently changed to automatic packing but recuires changes in the box design (a ll flaps must meet) which cannot be met by the local company due to lack of suitable machinery. All boxes are single flute and no white-liners used. Shrink wrapping has been considered but not so far introduced. 3oxes are normally glued but stapling is also used.

There -.-'ere many more points to be discussed and a second visit has been scheduled for 1 September 1982. 110 -

Visit to: I.C.A. Factory (second visit) Person seen: Dr. A.T. Kassim, Manufacturing and Planning Manager Date: 1 September 19o2

Cans

They do no food canning, only paint which is fille d into one, one-half, one-cuarter and one-eighth gallon cans. These are lever lid type with handles on the l?.rger sizes. They use about 250,000 per year. A ll made ' ually from imported, ready orinted tinolate sheet. Only one factory in Jordan capable of printing tinolate in Jordan. They used to make own cans but without the printing fa c ility ; a ll were labelled. They decided to go over to printed cans and ceased their own production rather than in stall the necessary machines, liie can making section, is however, being retained in case of suooly problems in the future and this creates soars caoacity in Jordan. The oroblems they get with the cans are not serious, occasional leakage from the lid or caused by faulty bcdy construction but this is saii to be less than ore oer cent and therefore should be classed as normal. The fillin g ooeration is very simple and is completely manual therefore very undemanding on the containers. They concentrate on the cuality oart of the market. There are some fifteen paint factories in Jordan but this is largely due to the ease with which paint manufacture can be started and most are very small operations. They have no olans that w ill involve a big increase in their need for oackaging over the next five years since the output of their own fa c ility w ill be geared to any production olans that develop. Importation of paint cans very expensive because of their large size. frlass

The company does not use glass containers.

Labels

At one time they used suite a large number of plain paper labels glued to their shampoo and cosmetic products. This is because the market demands multi-coloured illustrations and tc print such illustrations on to the plastic bottle would be very expensive. They are changing over to ore-coaoed, se lf- adhesive labels; at the present time the plain paper to self-adhesive is 50/50. Obey use in the order of one-half million labels per year. They used to buy from the Lebanon but these were not really satisfactory in terms of -uality and they are now buying from the U.X. Another point in favour of the s e lf- adhesive labels is the batch processing which leads to irregular use of the

labelling machines and their losses during start- up are reduced by the use of the self-adhesive labels. Local labels have be°n bought occasionally but found - 1 1 1 -

to be poor and of variable duality. Local suppliers cannot match the number of colours that they require. Expansion in this market is not seen as dramatic over the neat fj**e years. Reference was made to a printing factory in Zirca said to have three rotogravure cresses and who are considering entering the label market. They normally use P7A and co-polymer adhesives and cost o f their labels are varnished to give orotection against scuffing.

Pilms and Laminates

They use cellophane for overwraos and for small containing some four or six biscuits, also for toothpaste cartcn multioacks. However, they ere changing over to a machine capable of using the cheaoer polypropylene. They do not use shrink polyethylene. They use laminates for some biscuit packaging. This is an aluminium foil/paper/ hot melt using about 50 tons per year. Bought from Europe. In discussion it was agreed that this constituted over-packing and the: d° have plans in hand for changing this to a polypropylene overwrap. They use a considerable amount of paper overwrap for their Lux and similar toilet soap preparations. These are folded and glued on the machine.

Folding Cartons

They make Surf, Persil, Superwhite and Nonderlite brand names an the ietergent field . These cartons are packed on the Acme fillin g machine operating at about 250 per minute. The carton examined was obviously using too thin a board and this may well be connected with the complaints about powder leakar^ made by the supermarket manager. (Note: Their fillin g machine is not mor’ to take Van Buren Bars.) Cartons were already sho .Ing leaks at the clo and compression belt stage. The board lacked adequate stiffness for good performance. It is a WLC printed by rotogravure on the Chambon equipment in their own cartcn factory. They occasional have problems with the ; owder fa llin g on the adhesive layer just before closing, so forming a weak bond. They buy their adhesives abroad but also from ihe local supplier, Polymar. All cartons packed in 2CCgn boxes. The very large containers seen in the supermarkets are brought in from the Lebanon. They use about 15c,CCO cartons per day and their octal annual usage is in excess of twenty million. Their future demands for packaging are unlikely tc produce increase in outsiie supplies because they have their own internal production, matched to any plans for expansion of their detergent business. - 1*2

Tisit to: The Modem Flour Mills end ?.0. Box *533 Macaroni Factories Lid. Bate: 2- August 1>32 Person seer: Mr. 3akr.it M. 3akhit, Director

The company makes two major products; it mills flour and makes macaroni. ’¿oven Plastic Sacks Grain is bought by the Government and milled by the factory. It is then sacked in 50hg, woven, polyethylene sacks using some 2,000 oer day (approximately 700,000 oer year). There are four other mills in Jordan a ll using the same type of sack. Three are bigger than this one and the Government owned mill is said to produce some three times the ~uantity. The plastic sack was introduced in *975 ky Government order and cay only be used cnce whereas the linen bag previously used was re-used a number of times. The present system is fe lt to be more hygienic. Mo doubt the bags find re-use for other products, e.g. ir. agriculture. Sags are bought from the one bag-maker in Jordan and from Taiwan. Imported bags are considered to be a lit t le stronger but the difference today is not thought to be of any importance. Generally no problems. The bag is closed by sewing the mouth and the paper label is sewn into the seam at the same time. Mcne of the bags are printed. There are' occasional problems with the weave being a lit t le too ocen, but nothing serious. The bag is more slippery than the linen type and some stacking problems are experienced when in excess of eight high. The company could not predict the iegree of expansion expected over the next few years as they fe lt that certain features of the Government's pricing Policy made competing with imports and expanding exports very d iffic u lt. However, the population growth is in the order of twelve per cent per year and growth in the need for these plastic sacks could be in the order of double in the next five years, which could mean an extra four million bags per year. (Mote: Check sack factory expansion Plans). Plastic Film The macaroni products are tacked entirely in LD polyethylene. This is somewhat unusual but the company claims that at the present fixed orice they are not able to affor^ the clearer, more attractive polypropylene film. - -

> They claim that this less attractive acpearar.ce makes it difficult to compete with imported goods on the supermarket shelves and they find themselves at a disadvantage in trying to export. The product does not need the extra protection afforded by the "better film, just the improved appearance cut this can be a criticaJ. factor in increasing sales against competition, as when exporting tc the Lebanon and Kuwait. (gote: I f no draw­ back system exists for recovery of the 35 per cent import duty that must be paid on packaging materials, it is indeed unfortunate since promotion of exports usually needs all the help it can get.) The macaroni products are packed on a form f i l l and seal machine and this, like the rest of the equipment in the factory, is modern and in good condition. The small bags are then packed either into woven plastic sacks or into corrugated boxes for distribution. Printed polythene film can be bought locally but is of a occrer '-uality and the clarity of the film is below that of imported material. Corrugated Boxes These are bought locally and from 3eirut. Tie Beirut product was said to be superior in resistance to compressive forces (but there are now difficulties in obtaining supplies. go problems with the print cuality or rub resistance of the inks used. - 114 - 1 7isit to: Jordan 3evera.: Co. Ltd. Date: 21 August 1932 Person seen: Ibrahim A1 Zein, Managing Director

This comoany makes the Pecsi beverage ran'? and. has some 70 per cent of the market. Ail the glass bottles used ar« of the heavy, returnable variety, although consideration is being given to non-returnable light-weight glass bottles for the future, Ho cans are used. A ll bottles have to be imported and cone from Turkey, Czechoslovakia and the Lebanon. They buy aporoxiaateiy seven million bottles oer year and obtain about twelve to fifteen trips from each bottle. Problems with the bottles are not serious which they out down to vuality control monitoring of the accredited sucoliers by the Pecsi organization. When they do have a comoiaint this is dealt •.with ruickly and satisfactorily by the suocliers. Cuality control records are net oroviied with the delivered goods. One oroblem is resistance to shock as the product is pasteurized at oO°C and then fille d at 2°C which outs a great shock on the bottles. Hew bottles, if not correctly made can shatter during this orocess. However, this does orovide a safety device in that any weak bottles w ill fa il on the line and not out in the market olace. After a large number of trips the bottles become more likely to fa il during fillin g too. Class containers will become available from the prooosed glass factory but the connany is anticioating that teething troubles could take two years to overcome such that a satisfactory bottle can be obtained from this source. Most of the bottles used are clear but two lines (Teem and 7 Up) are so li in green bottles to crotect these products against rJV. Ho raw material assessment is carried out on incoming stock and is not considered necessary. The lines are high sceed and the plant is sa il to be one of the most highly automated in the Middle Hast. A ll handling ic on conveyor belt or on callets and automatic casing is used very successfully. Plastic half crates are used for all hardling. The company was not able to give an estimate of their future needs

~ 3 c l —L»*l «0 ’Z9i ’.lilZibls "to z 1 Zul 'ZCnr't ruct 1Y01V \ind°r "th,*? V-ii 1 ifl/T structure. However, with a Jordanian glass factory -alarmed, they should not have croclees. Plastic Jrates : c la s tic tra.yc (h a lf hei made by a local soanany. They have no crabiroblems lens and a l late i f e ofor 0 ° Lv® -ana ten years ic obtained. Polyethylene ; been found to be suceri 'ol'nro-'vlene for this ovr-cse. - 113

They do not feel that a 'lass secti ou in the suggested oacicaging 4J u labors o could be .justified for Jordan alone, but that it ni.jht be of value i f servin* a sub—region of several countries, within she Arab Region Crown Cans These are made 'ey a local company and also imoorted. Local cuality is said to be inferior to the icnorted ones and one reason is thought to b damage during storage of the local cans due to inadequate resistance to crushing exerted by the locally made corrugated boxes. (Examination of stocks certainly sunnorted this noint.) A ll caps have a P7C line. Consideration should be given to the introduction of a large size family bottle. The one and one-half litre and two litre sizes in PE? plastic have oroved very successful in other countries. - 116 -

vis it to: Abdul Hakeem Shaarav/i and Sons P.0. Box 73-°-9

Date: 22 August 19^2 f oora^n Person seen: Abdul Hakeem Shaarawi, Director

The oomoany cakes biscuits and •.rill shortly start manufacturing chocolate. ITinety-five oer cent of their oroducts go to the Jordanian market. Other coctanies in the same business number about four or five but this is the biggest. Packaging materials used include: colymropylene film (used on modem, fast, horizontal form f i l l and seal machine), SCOT cellophane (fo r overwraooing s display outers), corrugated boxes. Materials are bought trine dually in Italy, Germany and the Lebanon. They have not tried local connanies for flexible tackaging suttlies but local supplies of folding cartons, they say, are inferior to imported and more extensive (the carton suttliers blame this to some extent on high taxes on unprinted board). Carton erection, fillin g and closing is manual but cverwraoping is cy machine and they do not have any serious troblems. They use about 2C0 corrugated boxes ter day and have no troblems with the Lebanese oroduct. The Jordan product lacks print ruality, set-off of the inks is a common trtblem and the box lacks ade-uate connressicn resistance. It is more than a year since they tried local corrugated and they agree it may be better now. In general discussion as to why the local tackaging industry could not subtly their needs, three toints './ere stressed: 1. Local industry receives lit t le suoport from Government policy. 2. There is a lack o f ade'tiate capital to establish local converters (terhats because cf 'oor returns). 3. The local companies lack exterience on what is needed to make good cartons. './hen production starts on chocolate manufacture there •■/ill be a need for fo il laminates and crinted taner overrrats. Closure of corrugated cases is by elastic adhesive tate bought from a local agent ’./he buys in bulk from Italy. 3oxes not returnable. They have a problem in crinting the iate of e x tiry on the tack. It can be done by a device at tresent on the machine but lovernmer.t re gelations insist on it being clearly 'risible to the general tu b lic (? ). Thay -are seeking a small add-on orint -unit io do th is. - 11? -

7isit tc: Kabatilo Industry and Tradinr ?.Q. Bon 235-11 Date: 22 August 1932 Tel. 22113 Person seen: Abdula Kabatilo, Owner

The company makes juice drinks and packs a ll c? it into 25Ccc Tetraorik cartons. Part exported to Iraq, U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia. Packaging materials used are: 1. Poly/boari/noly/aluminium foil/ooly/uaoer laminate recuired fcr this soecial oackaging machine. 2. Corrugated bores. The ooanlex laminate is a ll orinted to a very high --uality and imported from Sweden. This could not be oroduced locally. Corrugated Boxes One-third of their needs they buy in Jordan; the rest from the Lebanon. The cost is said to be the same but the ruality of the local oroduct is inferior. Comoression resistance is not recuired (because the oroduct can carry much of the load) but the image is moor. The Lebanon carton is white and they would orefer to stay with this material. Quality image is considered essential to their marketing. Ho ink rub. They use some three-cuarter million cartons uer year and could well double this usage when their new machinery cones on stream during the next

Twenty-seven of the small cartons are shrink wraored together and then oacked into corrugated boxes. Ho oalletisamion is used. Case flaps are glued, with P.7.A. adhesive bought fron a local imno-ter. The shrink oolyethylene is bought locally from Ardine. - 113 -

V isit to : The Shaarawi Chewing Jum ;-actor” ?.J. Зих o?12 Date: 22 August IPS2 Amman, Jordan Person seen: Sami A.A. Shaarawi, Manager T el. 72115

The company makes chewing gum and biscu its. Packaging materials used: Paper/foil laminates, printed and urnrinted. Vax i i " e r overwraps. Cellophane for small pouches and overwraps. Display cartons. Corrugated boxes. Lea-i nates and Cellophane Supplied by Holland, Germany and sometimes Ita ly . Feu problems with the machines. Local supplies are being tried (the printed sample shown was nylon or polyester, cut possible only the print ruality was being illustrated by the supplier), from Jordan Print Pack (telephone 37C71)* The company feels that a central point at which plastic films and laminates could be discussed and tested would be nest helpful. Foliin? Cartons Supplied by Cyprus (Couvas) and are display outers in white-lined chipboard. The cartons are set up and closed by hand, but automatic packing machinery due shortly. Forty display outers are packed into corrugated homes and seme 2C0 of the latter are used each day. Approximately 10,COO iisnlay cartons are used each day. Attempts to buy cartons from local companies have not been successful because of poor print '■uality and poor crease reality as well as high prices (Kotab Co.). Cartons bought locally could cost twice that being bought abroad, e.g. a display carton costing tJS3 1,570 per million in the Lebanon could cost "S3 3,000 in Jordan. It is said that part of this difference is the high cost of the board which is being bought in much smaller ~uantities in Jordan, but part is the fact that unprinted board carries 35 per cent import duty, whereas printed materials carry only 25 per cent duty (something very strange i f local Production is being supported). Corrugated 3oxes Supplied la rgely from Cyprus. TTo problems. They trie d Jordanian cartons some six years ago and the product found to be ver1’’ poor. Last month they tried again and the improvement ju stified the submission of samples. ?~ice has not yet been discussed. They would prefer lo ca l. Their objections were not concerned with the compression resistance o f the boxes (the product can carry the weight) it was the cu ality of the print, s e t-o ff ar.i print in non—print агеаз. 'A

- 119 -

71 si - loz Aius^e 1 Date: 23 August ’ 932 Person seen:

The comoany makes beer only and. has some ?C cer cent of the Jordanian market, imports account for aooroximately elwen ter cent cut they hate to introve on this. They use heavy duty, returnable .¿lass bottles and claim some four to six trios ter bottle (note: atoears low). A ll are bought from Czechoslovakia ana are of excellent cuality. However, some 5,000 gross -have to be ordered each time which means a lot of capital tied uo. Local suoolies would heIt in this astect. Very few technical troblems, breakage on the line could reach one and cne-half ter cent but this includes bottles after a nunber of tries during which they w ill be weakened. They have a licence with a Dutch coctany and therefore have accoss to excellent develotment data and information. The comtany also checks the cuality of the bottles. Corrugated Boxes All bottles are distributed in corrugated containers, used between one and three times. Plastic crates would be better means but the high caoital involved (aoproximately 200,000 JD1) is too high at the oresent time. The boxes are bought from the Jordan Pacer Co. and they are satisfied although find the oerformance inferior to imoerted examoles. P.S3 has not been involved in their oroblems: they are considering installing a test laboratory as they feel chat when the local glass factory comes on stream, they w ill have to exoect teething troubles. Crown Ca^s All are imported from the Lebanon or Holland. They have not used the local suoolier (they say he cannot suoolv orinted cans). Incoming cats are checked visually for thickness, obviously damage but they have lit t le or nc running oroblems. Cans Cans are used for local and export and they use aooroxisately one——garter million oer month. They use both two ana three-oiece cans; the two-niece can being very recent and is said to be steel. The beer can is considered to be one of the most difficult to make and calls for very tight -oality control. Cane are very extensive to bring an iue to high freight costs and an imoorx duty ta il to be 1C0 oer cent. However, the can is proving very pcoular Soecifications for all oackaging materials are suooiiei by t he Dutch comoany and oackaging does not give them any oroblems. 1 7isit to: The Jordan Dairy Go. I&te: 23 August 1982 Person seen:

This ooccany has been in existence for twelve years and its croducts are milk based, including yogurt, cheese, ice-cream, flavoured milk products and some local croducts. The oackaging used includes: 1. Plastic cues (all colystyrene). 2. Cartons (Purecak). 3. Plastic films and laminates (as lidding materials). 4. Plastic crates (for distribution). Same export but not an incortant cant of their oroduction. Plastic Cuos Ail these are bought locally at the oresent time but the comcany are claiming to make their own in the near future. Usage is in she order of twelve/thirteen million oar yean. Main reason for -¡reducing their own is in the hooe of lower costs. They occasionally have oroblems with the -ruality, e.g. distribution of clastic, the adhesion of the print and the snan-fit lids not fittin g too well. The only R.M.A. is a visual examination, go scecifications exist. The RSS laboratory/ have not been involved. Two ty/ces of closure; the snao-on tyce for the ice-cream and a ue it -s e a le i f o il laminate heat sealed on to the polystyrene cue base. They have not had any toxicity or taint problems. The croducts are so li through refrigerated outlets and have shelf lives of between two and fifteen days. All food croducts sold in Jordan must carry an exciry late, required by law, and must be accroved by the Ministry/ of Surely. They have a croclem with their oasteurised milk in that they claim that the cresent shelf life allowance of two days is 'unnecessarily low and that five days ’would be more accrocriate. Laminates These are imeortad, ready orir.ted, from Germany and have not given any crob lams. Plastic Crates These are used for distribution. They :.iv3 i wh^lf lif3 of oniv three months after which they tend to break uc. locally/. a orates Onuh^i’/’ i?*£LdS and are obviou sly too tain to stand uc * 0 0 ^ icyr•ui/vtior. “h:.* is hound to take olaoe in Jordan. Ito ther cossi b ilit y is that a hi ~*h ^^rosn'tc. of* yrir.d material e ?» ^ ^ e *e t UC^d* Correctly maia orates •would be excccted to hav® a useful 1i f ° ot* f*iv^ to ten years and this is found to be the case with the few Danish orates they are using. Aocarently,

the mould being used by the local oupciier is the only one available. I 121

Pirsoak Cartons These cartons are bought from Horway and are of excellent cuality and run trouble-free on the Pure oak machine. This carton is very difficult to make veil at a reasonable price and could not be made locali.7 in Jordan unless a large olant supplying a number of Arab States vras installed. The material is a polyethyieneAoard/polyethylene laminate. I-Ibst Pureoak users are expected to carry out certain -ruality control checks on their incoming cartons but this is not being done here ( i f they - don’ t have any problems, then there is no real reason to do them of course). Comment s It is perhaps a lit t le unfortunate that the company has decided to go in for staking their own clastic cues. There is already a very highly developed manufacturing industry making cues in Jordan but the more the available market is solit u p , the lower the chances of development and replacement of machinery at a date early enough to take advantage of newer techni~ues. This sort of problem also arises in the plastic bottle blowing activity and to sene extent, it may be happening in can making too. It is not necessarily good commercial practice for a food or household, goods manufacturer to en+er pack making too since the available expertise gets spread too thinly amongst the users of that expertise. This is one case where a special study could perhan3 be made with a view to limiting its further expansion in terms of numbers of companies involved. - 122 - 1

7 : «?■T* f.ri* 'T’Vj o .InT^rm PnnJ P ^ c o q r -ì C.n . — — . ■ - - — - - — ------* ------— -j - - - p .q. Bo:c 170 Person seen: Alfred Rail Salib, Technical ani Annan, Jordan Research Manager Tel. 21290 Date: 21 August 1?82

The company cans local vegetables including chick peas, len til s o u p. green peas, broad beans and homos ’oritehni. They •.;orl: with one can size having a content of 330gn. All cans are at present brought in ready printed and made from Greece. All tinplate, laccuered overall, the laccuer being chosen by the supplier to suit the product. The supplier is their best source of technical information. They use approximately one million cans per month and 70 per cent go to export in the Arab States. The can is side-seam-soldered and a ll are three-niece. The cans are lithograched because it gives a better appearance and because labels are said to be very expensive. They also had gluing problems when labelling in the early days. (This is interesting because using lithographed cans would normally be more expensive than la b e llin g .) The printed can stands uc better to the rough conditions experienced during the long road journey to the foreign markets. They have installed a can line and are in the process of bringing it into use. The tinplate -.fill be imported ready printed and laccuered. Graphic design has been done in the factory. Designer help is said to be available in Jordan, but is considered very expensive. They occasionally have problems with the imported cans, e.g. damage to the flanges, side-seam-soldering not correct, print cuality showing misregister and incomplete laceuer coverage. The:/ examine cans visually only. The cans come by sea to Syria and then by road to Amman. A fourth fillin g line w ill be installed in the near future. Reference was made to an organization called The Arab Federation of Food Industries which meets periodically and has discussed packaging problems within the Region. Canning of food is s t ill at a very lev/ level in Jordan; people s t ill depend on and prefer fresh foci whenever possible. This is expected to change, but not at a particularly .great pace. The company relies on imported technology but i* very interested in any move to improve local expertise but it must be devoted to heicing overcome problems. There was r®al interest in the possibility of a laboratory in which they could carry out their own tests. Reference was made to the Food Science Department at the University (note: a visit should be made). - 123 -

Corru.?ated 3oxes The cans are distribute! in corrugated boxes which are imported ready printed carrying the empty cans, iihen they start using their own cans, box?s w ill be bought locally. They have tr ie ! then: before and, although weaker (causing boxes to break during handling), they feel that they w ill be satisfactory. They are experimenting with a corrugated tray and w ill change to shrink wrapping shortly; the machine has been bought. They use about 40,000 cases per month; no re-use. They are sealed by plastic tape bought from a local agent who brings it in from Hong Kon~ Ho problems with colour variation, rub resistance, etc. on the print 3o:ces carry the company name and the name of the product (note: labelling could reduce stock control problems). Olass Containers They used to bottle vegetables but have abandoned this because of problems with the product it s e lf but they do not expect to return to this method of presentation. 124 -

Tisit to: Jar Ai Dawa Dev. arid Inv-sti-etit Co. Lt ?.C. 3cm } эо4. Date: 25 August 1?52 Annan, Jordan Person seen: Mr. M. Pityuni, General Man Tel. 33327

The comany makes a range of pharmaceuticals out many antibiotics. There are four pharmaceutical companies in Jordan, Arab Ifenufacturing being the oldest and the biggest and this conn any is second. t They sell in Jordan and паке for export; exports representing some two-thirds of their output. Tyoes of packaging used are: 1. Filns "and laminates (PTC f i l a ) . 2. Aluminium f o i l . 3. Glass bottles. 4. Folding cartons. 5 . Corrugated boxes. o. Plastic boxes and bottles. 7. Labels. Corrugated Boxes A ll are bought locally and they are satisfied except that dividers are not available and they regard these as essential for their bottles. The exoort cuality from JPL is used, at the rate o f 25,CCO per year. Breakage of exports is not excessive (about three sen cent). Snorts go almost entirely by truck to other Arab countries. Aluminium Foil Laminates These cannot be bought in Jordan at the present time but it is thought that a local company was preparing to make them. A ll are imported from Germany, France or Austria. Biggest use is for PTC in ro lls which are then thermoformed into b liste r packs and then sealed with a lidding material of aluminium fo il. They say that they have no problems with procurement or in performance; no technical help is needed. They have a laboratory which carries out assessments on incoming materials. Stability studies are carried out in the factory laboratory. They have a know-how agreement with an Austrian conn any which provides them with guidance with their packaging needs too. Polling Cartons These are a ll imocrted. They have tried the local product hut have had problems with colour variation, tab closing and releasing, and other faults. They have dealt with t:.*o local companies hut buy mostly from Beirut and Cyprus.

1 - 125 -

All cartons are sale in soli white (many in cast-coated beard). ?or granule design, the first layout and com any lore were prepared in the U.K .; subsequent nroducts hnv® just needed the wording changed. All erection, fillin g and closing of cartons is by hand. Glass Containers These are a l l imeorted from It a ly and the cars most I.- free In~1 and. They do not fe el that the nronosed .¿lass container factory w ill be concerned with their tyoe of container fe r sooe time to come (and the consultant would not recommend that they do). Certain checks are made on incoming raw materials (nackaging, that i s ) mostly visual but also oH of glass and hardness o f the aluminium caps. They use three sizes: 10ml, 30ml and 10Cml. Hirid and Seni-ririd Plastic Containers They use a 500ml size that is made lo c a lly , but atcemots to buy good clastic bottles locally have not been successful. An example shown in which the standard could only be described as abysmal. Excessive flash suggested that a very old mould had been used and the appearance o f the plastic suggested massive use o f re-grind m aterial. The can would not f i t because of the flash (it is hard to believe that this is representative). - 126 - IISFCHMATIOIT PP.OM IH5 PEPASTI-jT'J OF STATISTICS

InPGPTS FOR П Л

Ref. To. Description Cuantity Value oD3 D-iav Paid

72/13 Tindate sheets for tinplate containers 9,775 tons 1,413,35^ 2.5 f i l A g 75/ 4 Aluminium fo il, caper/aluninius - not exceeding 0. 15°n - a. Caps 56 tons 35,552 b. Others 537 tons 575,342 32/12/b Printing ink 234 tons 459,755 5?- 39/ 2 Polymers and Co-polymers - b granules for PTC 676 tons 253,797 b/2 transparent film 271 tons 134,H5 f/* PTA 4o1 tons 131,795 43/ 1 b. Printing paper 2,904 tons 367,70-3 e. Other ■./racking pacer '¿'•1 tons 75,739 г Г c. Kraft 2,795 tens 579,U9 c/2 '.fraccing cacer 1,7*1 tons 345,720 c/3 Kraft 303 tons 272,105 43/ 3 Greaseproof, parchment 432 tons 272,105 11^ 43/ 4 Composite paper, paperboard 34 tons 12,556 и/, 43/ 5/3 Paper and paperboard, corrugated 412 tons 77,153 n < 43/ ? Pacer and board, impregnated - a. Printed 232 tons 100,465 b. Coated, nan:/ layers, duplex 2,03o tons 351,534 d. Coated 204 tons 97,513 45/15 Other paper and paperboard - b. Gummed caper ro lls 151 tons 15=,720 c. Tissue for fruit and vegetables 33 tons 11,043 43/19 Paper or pacerboard labels 25 tons 30,5-39 u fi 43/16 a. Pacer bags for industrial materials 2,424 tons 351,221 c. Match boxes 339 tons 222,505

i. 3o::es aade of pacerboard (corrugated) 1 ,449 tons Э I 1 f 1 43/21 h. Packaging for eggs zzr.z 3,430 70/ * Cullct, ::aste glass }4 tons 1 , 370 f3*oo

, v* / U ... Carboys, bottles, tubular containers 5,3*3 tons ',022,ri

- • b . Others J?1 cons s '* • 1 ~~ 7Л ^ Class containers for laboratories, т п 1 * g; charmaceu'icals, c.yrir.ges 4-5 tons i —^

i - 127

larorts for 1931 - C O llt.

Ref. ïïo. Description Tuantitv Value JD>

73/23 a. Boses of sheet steel. Containers f roc oimlated joods. Uncompleted. 3 tons 1,?=5 2.2. As ='cove out co an le ted *9” tons 115,353 b. Containers 373 tons 233,221

c. Casks, drums, boxes and similar 23d tons 111,400 37/ 7 Ceos for jars and bottles 9 tons 17,751 76/10 a. Collapsible tubes 33 tens 130,160 - *28 -

7isit to: The Jordan Tobacco oni Cigarette Co. Date: 30 August ’3°2 Person seen: Antcun Acdel Maiek, Technical Maria7?r

The comoary cakes tobacco croducts. Packaging used includes: cigarette cartons, disclay cartons, olastic f i le for overwrapeing and corrugated boxes. They have a very modern carton factory attached to the cigarette factory. It is cart of the grouo but operates indeoendently. They have two Chaabon gravure cresses, four-colour which cut, crease and collate in line, very efficient and modem ecuiament. Heidleberg crinting cresses toe. They innort reels of solid, white, coated board from Iggasui in Sweden. The cuality they get is cuite satisfactory although they always strive for better. ITo real croblems on the machines. All corrugated boxes are bought from the Jordan Pacer Co. They giv® no problems (which is not sun risin g as the croduct is sc light and s e lf- succorting). They export some 30 per cent to Irar, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. They used to overwrac with cellochane but have new completely changed to GPP, which they buy from Hercules and Mobile Oil in the U.3.A. The film gives them the clarity, crotection and gloss that they must have. ITo crcblems ’.with this material. They use PVA adhesive which is bought from Scair. and which has proved to be of excellent -uality, runs well on the machine and is the cheanest offered. They tried the local F7A and the firs t sasiole submitted but the next samale was 'mite useless (note: arrang®i to see this adhesives factory). There appears to be no quality control applied by the adhesives factory, (and another example of needing to match an existing product very carefullv). The corrugated cartons are sealed by stacles; a lit t le surprising in view of the care needed to avoid damage but this is avoided by clacing liners made from the many incoming cartons (containing fille r s ) inside the toe of the box. This also imeroves the crotection. The highly scecialicei tear stria is bought from the Tb.er“ is very lies!® that an outside organisation could do tc helo what acc^ars to be a very efficient oceration end '.cart from tr.e adhesive which ’will be looked into, there is very lit t le that local 3usclier3 can orovide.

1 - 129 -

Visit to: The Jimco Match Factory Date: 30 Avgust l?-32 Person seen:

There are two match making factories in Jordan ani both use similar packaging, i.e . a simple shell and slide box and hook type holders. Heels of heard are brought in (and some sheet) ready printed for the shell and slide machines. Shortly the printing w ill he don%*in line with the machine that applies the striking surface. Buy from Sweden and Germany. ITo problems. The corrugated boxes are bought from Cyprus and locally. 30 rer cent are bought from JPC because they have to under Government order, but they say that Cyprus boxes are some 30 per cent cheaoer for a better product (however, the Cyprus boxes seen later were so poor that they could hardly be better, perhaps just cheaper). They do not ha^e oroblems, however, because the product is so light and does give ample support to the box its e lf. In 1977 they tried clastic corrugated boxes submitted from Sgyot. They worked reasonably well and (surprisingly) were only some eight per cent more expensive than corrugated fibreboard and had a longer re-use li f e . However, there were d iffic u ltie s with stacking the f i lle d boxes due to low fric tio n . The gummed plastic tane is bought from a local importer. - T 30 -

V isit to: Jordan Polymers and Intermediate P.C. 3o:t 2^02 Chemicals Co. Amman, Jordan Date: 1 September 19^2 Tel. S o}’ *, 223?1 Person seen: Mr. A. Snober, Managing Director Mr. Jiryes Barleh, Sales Man arer

This coca any claims to be the only manufacturer from the monomer cf PVA in this cart of the Arab Region. The cornsany has a know-how licence from Vinyl Product of the U.K. and have fu ll access to their information on adhesive manufacture. The products they make are: Alkyd resins, PVA based on oo-oclymers for adhesives etc., and PVA for the paint industry. They dc not make hot melt, dextrine or other t y e s of adhesives, ^tey sell at present for rarer and. beard abdications and are preparing to enter the vcod adhesive market. The company vas formed as the result of a U1TID0 fe a sib ility study, taken with the ID3, and this was based on the needs in the whole region. They have esuioment for the measurement of viscosity, solids content and some other straight forward tests but the rests for adhesive performance are very basic. They do use the RSS laboratories but only for applications associated with maint. They dc not feel that they have any serious problems with supplying the Jordanian industry with what it wants (note: this is not what the industry its e lf seems to think) and they claim to be supplying the bulk of the adhesives used in Jordan ( ! ) . Packaging only represents about 20 per cent of the possible markets for their adhesives which at the moment is in the order of 30-1CO tons per year. Prom their point of dew the big users are ICA, Arab Detergents, Modem Detergents, Arab Mineral Maters and the oamt factories. They believe thaï they have ample capacity to cope with any market expansion in the future; despite this a second factory has been authorised to start Production of PVA polymers therefore the future needs should be oversuoolied. Another big user wouli be the Jordan Paoer Sack Co., who make the sacks for the cement factory. They feel that one of the problems in Jordan is a lack of appreciation of adhesives used properly and the inability to describe technically the needed properties. However, they io make the point that the market is s t ill a very small one and at does t.ak® a reasonably big market to justify ar.v technical or special marketing -o~roach. They io “/.port but io not see any major growxh in this area, p®rhaos 2C cor cent

y * »r> - 131

In terns of information sources, i f it was nos available fron their licenser they wouli ~o to another outside source; lit t le is available in Jordan. In discussion the point cane out about the need to lin it the number of companies engaged in any particular activity since over-production tended to limit in depth development and improvement in capital emioment or market development. - 132 -

Telephone conversation with Jordan Pa^er Sacks Ltd. Date: 1 Seotember 19^2 Person spoken to: Mr. Mufleh, General Mara per

This comoany rakes the sultiole nacer sacks. Products packed include: cement, ooultry feed and calcium carbonate and they hone in the future to oack flou r. All the kraft used is isnorted, mostly from Austria and the Scandinavian countries (under the Scankraft Organization). This is their third year of operation and after preliminary difficulties they now feel that they have a very good product. All staff recruited lo c a lly and had to be trained. Sales are difficult because they are coooeting with very skilled ccmnanies abroad who can make excellent sacks from the bare minimum k raft, that is 70gsm and any drop below this w ill cause too high a rejection rate from the customer. This comoany has adooted the oolicy of operation with 30gsm to ensure adecúate strength but this cuts the orofit margin too low for satisfactory running and they hooe eventually to ooerate satisfactorily with 70gsm. They are constantly offered new sources cf kraft caper at attractive rates, e.g. recently from the U.S.A., but they are not in a good cosition to evaluate these papers technically which is limiting. (lióte: The above two situations need the hele of a good laboratory evaluation service for the caoer olus good oerformance test eouioment since they cannot continue to ocerate above the minimum strength of kraft, and yet, to do so, call3 for rig id control of incoming materials and orocess conditions.) Larger factories, Like those in 2urone can afford to ocerate close to the lower levels and out aside any s lig h tly v/eak sacks that may result for use with less demanding ooerations, or s lig h tly weaker caoer o f course. Exports are difficult because they have to match the croduct of factories with many years of manufacturing experience and with excellent technical facilities. The present market for caoer sacks is in the order of 10 m illion car year, of 'which they have a market share of about 30 cer c°n t. There are two further cement factories olanned and the demand for sacks is excectei to rise to 120 million by 19?3. It vouii seem in Jordan's interests if, by that time, the bulk o f Jordan's needs were crovidei from local manufacture. It was agreed that a visit would be made to the factory for discussions with the Technical Manager, Mr. Abu Human. г V

- 133

Dissuasions with Mr. 31an J. Khatib, Arab Mineral Mater Co ?.0. 3s?: 2011 Date: 4 September 19-32 Amman, Jordan ?* :. 23231

The company has been established for some five years and after some in itia l difficu lties is now producing a very good product which is very well cached. A rood example of hew a его duct should be oreser.ted in the t market place. They had a know-how agreement for the firs t six months with a Trench conroany. Approximately 35 per cent o f their output is sold within Jordan, the remainder is sold' for export with Saudi Arabia bein~ the biggest customer. One difficulty with this export market is that they have to nay a 20 per cent tax against three per cent tax being oaii by other countries that have made special trade agreements with the Saudis. Despite this, expansion of this export market is possible although not considered to have very great potential. At present two to three truck leads per day for expert. Another licence has been granted fo r mineral water "reduction and the factory w ill be in Production in the near future. A good deal of automation is used in the factory production. Plastic Bottles These are made in a mineral water grade of PVC which is imported from Prance. They blow their own partly because of the economics and partly because they wore not able to get the -mality they remired locally. Another very important point is that bottles filled shortly after blowing are sterile, a very important facet of mineral water production. They use approximately ten million bottles oer year.

Up to the present time they have not been involved in quality control checks on their packaging but they are in the process of evaluating this possibility. They injection-mould their own caps from LD ooiy. The cap is a safety type. Labels These are printed locally on paper brought in by the oonnar.v. It is an oCgsm clay , normally bought from Sweden or Japan. At firs t, "uality was not good enough but now satisfactory levels have been achieved °xceot for colour variation. All labels ire litho-printed. Adhesives These are bcuxht from Prance although the local ?VA is beans tried out. A hot m°it is used for clorinr the corrugated cases. « A

Corrugated Cases They s t ill buy 2.11 cf their renirenents from abroad. They tried sons tine ago to use the local cases free JFC, 'rat had ver.7 moor results. These included faults such -as inade^aate stiffness for their automatic oortenning nachine, distensions not sufficiently accurate, and the conpression resistance of the cases was inade'-uate such that the lower levels were donated during the journey to Saudi Arabia by truck. The cutting and creasing was inconsistent and sometimes of a poor standard. Glue occasionally contaminated the inside of the case making it d ifficu lt to omen and causing jams on the line. Print not sufficiently rub resistant and ink contamination in the non-orint areas. The automatic -ackinr line operates at eight boxes car minute, gluin~ too and bottom of the case. They would like to buy the local oroiuct and are ir. the orocess of evaluating current croduction. They normally use SgC.gsm corrugated and as the local croduct has proved inadequate the comoany has offered -COgsm board. This is said to cause problems on the feeder mechanism (note: from the iescriction of the fault, it sounded like a oorosity difference rather than a thickness difference). Cases are c a lle tise i for handling within the factory and for truck loading. Sxcorts are not calletised. Problems in Jordanian Industry There was a general discussion about croblems of training staff. In cackaging technology thi3 is impossible in Jordan ani they are considering sending a nan to Suroce to make a special 3tudy of cartons, boxes, labels, etc. from the ~uality control coint of view. They have had contact with RSS but there are aroblems in the 3meed at which they can ooerate, lack of security ani the very high charges made. Jordan needs technicians rather than highly qualified staff at the cresent time ani these are very hard to find. The role of "sandwich training" wa3 discussed. It was fe lt that this seemed aoorooriace to Jordan (i.e . six months in industry, then 3i;c months in college, for three ye ars). The idea of having e~uiament that was accessible to industr” was discussed ani received enthusiastically. He •'referred one system by which one of thai r technical staff would be oresent ani directing the testing, but the actual use of the test e—aiement would be by a technician on the aackagir.g laboratory staff. However, the scheme does apeear to overcome a Lot of the objection that industry ¡123 to centralise testing facilities. Most factories in Jordan are too small to ourenase test e''uiament and maintain the trained 3taff necessary for successful use. - 135 -

7isit tc: Kotab Press Lti. Date: 5 Se*.tenser 1?32 Annan, Jordan Person seen: Mr. Ziki M. Tuhu, General Manager Tel

This lit t le comany makes cartons and labels and does general minting. There are about five cr sin companies in Jordan doing similar work, e.g. Masri Press, Annan Press, Saba and llassar Press Co., the Metro Press and the Arab Press. They cake mostly for the chocolate, biscuits and tissue comanies. Use almost entirely tihite-lined chiiboard which is bought from a local agent; they do not use sufficient quantities to imoort direct. Cne of their biggest crcblems is the very high inroort duty cn unprinted

board claiming that this can be as high as J2 per cent as against 15 to 2 VJ1 oer cent (figures varied from time to time) for crunted cartons. The comany is so snail that they must rely almost entirely on the sk ill of its workers, v/ith the oossible enceotion of the cutting and creasing ooeration which is done on a Eeiileberg rotary cutter and creaser. The standard of creasing in their cartons is very poor and there must be a way of improving it . The conditions on the rake-ready did not look ootimum for this type of board. They claim that 70 oer cent of their cartons are erected on machines (this 3eens unlikely therefore there nay have been a misunderstanding about the question). They have a P.olani, one-colour offset press and two small Heidleberg letteroress machines and one big letterpress Heiileberg (all cne-colour). All inks come from Trance, Germany, Holland or Denmark. They have tried suonlies from India and China but find the -uality coor. A major oroblem is getting nrir.ting cress workers; they are almost imoosaible to recruit in Jordan and they are looking outside (note: is there a need to train locally in crinting technology?). Some of the examples seen were of a very good quality. Biggest users seem to be Samar chocolates and Zl'h biscuits. - 136 -

Visit to: Zahi Confectioneries and 3i.scu.ios Factor;/’ Date: 5 September '9^2 Person seen: Mr. Zahi Khalil famin, General Manager

This factory uses celloohane, oclyorooylene, paper/’-'cly, metallized oolycrooylene, cartons, some labels and corrugated boxes. The celloohane, clastic films and laminates are imported ready printed. The cartons are mostly oroduced in Jordan. They say that they do not have any oarticular oroolems with their packaging with the exception of the corrugated boxes. Corrugated boxes lack the comoression resistance that they require and obtain from imported boxes (stackin' six to eight high causes collaose of the bottom cartons). They do net feel that JPL oay sufficient attention to the needs of the Jordanian market. They mentioned that a oroocsal was put forward for the introduction of a second box factory, but oermission was refused by the Government, Communication was somewhat limited due to language d ifficu lties. A second meeting was agreed upon. - 137 - 1 Discussions with The Faculty of Food Science, University of Joriaii Date: 7 September 1982 Persons seen: Dr. M. Fb.gih Dr* Salma Tukar Dr. Amre Ayed The corpose of the visit was to iiscuss the role of nackaging in food science courses and to discuss the extent to which it features in the food science course as at oresent planned and executed. From the very varied pro grame offered, the narts relevant to oackaging technology included: general and analytical chemistry, ohysics, food and dairy nrocessing, microbiology, organic chemistry, food additives and food canning and nackaging. There are a number of optional subjects that can be introduced as and when special exnertise becomes available to the University. Research tonic could also be chosen frcm the nackaging field. The two most relevant narts are food additives and the food canning and nackaging sections. The nroblems concerninr leaching of undesirable comnonents from certain nackaging materials in contact with foods could be dealt -with very ’well as these constitute unintentional additives. Thè food canning and nackaging section is not yet cart of the curriculum but is planned for the coming year and the University is narticularly well olaced to include this section because of the arrival of a new member of staff, Dr. Mohamed Aki Humeid, whose Ph.D. 'was concerned •with the nroblems associated with food nackaging. The course has only been graduating neonle since 1979, therefore it is d ifficu lt to assess where the graduates a r . going to find their nlace in the Jordanian community, but from the evidence so far, it would annear that few w ill go directly into industry and that nerhans the nroblems that go with food nackaging on a large scale would be more suitable subject for chemical engineers. There did not seem sufficient justification to extend the nackaging activity in the food science section to any greater extent than was already nlanned. One nossible idea is that chemical engineers who decided to snecialioe in the food industry might welcome a course ("erhaps at M.3c. le v e l), that further develoned their knowledge of food science (using she existing food science courses) and went ieener into she nackaging "robLems they would undoubtedly be concerned with in any large food ".recessing concern.

i - 138 - 1

7ieit to: Jordan Paper Sacks P-0.P.0. 3c:: 2C23C Date: 3 September '932 Amman, Jordan Person seen: Mr. Aziz Abu Runar., works Manure Pel. 2240}

This company has no know-how agreement with other comanies but does obtain a lot of technical help from the Scandinavian suppliers of Kraft. > The building uas completed in '979* Training of local staff in operating procedures took up to 1930. Existing equipment, which is modern and appears to be o f very good quality, has a capacity of fifteen million sacks per shift per year (potential of over thirty million sacks per year). In 1930, they sold some six million sacks, in 1931 some four million and so far in 1932 they have sold eight million. This is a small percentage of the present total usage in Jordan which is in the order of twenty to twenty-five million. The estimated market for 1935 is '50 million sacks based on the likely cement tonnage from the Planned factories (note: a proportion of that new tonnage w ill almost certainly go into intermediate bulk containers) In addition to cement, there is considerable potential for the animal feed, calcium carbonate, and oossibly fe rtiliz e r industries. One of their main problems is that they are competing with sacks imported from countries with long experience in sack production and these sacks are exempted from tax. The Kraft for locally produced sacks is exempted from tax too but adhesives are charged 30 per cent import duty, and the printing inks 40 to 45 per cent import duty. They estimate that this extra duty makes a difference of US'? 3-5 per 1,000 sacks which is a factor adversely affecting their competitiveness. Jordan Cement Factory is said to use some eighteen million sacks per year at the present time and companies in Aruaba make up the balance. It appeared from discussion that the quantities at present being supplied are not yet big enough to allow them to use their machines efficiently as they are hardly fillin g one shift and to get value for money from such installation, they would need to run two shifts. I f this •was the case, plus removal of the extra import iuty, they are confident that they could compete on price despite the advantages experienced by long- established companies, some of whom have an integrated supply of Kraft. The Jordan Cement Co. is 50 per cent owned by the Ccvernmen:. - 139 - 1

> The ultimate test as to whether the local product is technioaily ziecuate is under actual f i l l i n ' and use conditions. However, this is not an easy thing to vsrify. They agree that ore-testing of the materials and the sacks would play a role but they are only in a position to check basis weight, burst, tensile and thickness at the present tine. Relevant tests would be: tensile, stretch at break, tensile energy absorption, tear, porosity and moisture content of the caper. / In theory, P.SS are in a position to carry out these tests now but in practice, arranging the tests is a tine-consuming and expensive operation, and they have not fe lt that the costs of such tests can' be justified in 4 terms of return. Dron tests are highly relevant for this kind of product, especially -.'hen evaluating the Potential of capers from new sources. It was understood that an additional problem is that the factory's activities nay be restricted on environmental grounds due to the existence of underground water supplies in the area. The activity of sack making would not normally be associated with collation hacards and i f the factory was not cermitted to use the space it already has available to increase its production to more viable levels, then the future of the oceration could be seriously affected. Care with the disposal of excess adhesive and ink •would accear to be necessary but as these are excensive items, the cuantities involved are usually "uite small. The imcression obtained was certainly one that the factory’ s efforts to succeed were being hampered rather than helped as one would expect in such a development. However, it comes back to the question of being able to show that the croduct is .good enough to rsclace imcorted ones. The idea of carrying out tests in the presence of industrial personnel •was discussed and it was fe lt that the idea was 'worth further study. The caper sack is s t ill the creferred method of packaging cement and it would appear that it was in Jordan’ 3 interests to sucport the ieveloccent of this industry. Perhacs protection similar to that being giver, to the corrugated box industry would be accrocriate, in that local users are obliged to buy a percentage of their needs from local suppliers (unless it car. be shown that by doing so the v ia b ility of their own croduct is endangered). The expenditure on imported sacks per year is already being measured in millions of Jordanian dollars cer year. It is in Jorian’3 interest that as much of that as possible is scent within Jordan. - u o i 7isit to: Sica Go. (Detergen' and Coseetics) P.O. 3ox 2225 Date: 1* September '9^2 Amman, Jordan Person seen: Mr. S. Aszouni, Owner Tel. £29'9

This is an independent com any that makes '..'ashing wder, soaps ani scouring powder. They are planning to develop into he cosmetic fie ld . Packaging used includes: Folding cartons for detergents and soar: I Corrugated boxes; Overwraps, coated paper for toilet soap; Adhesives, for the cartons; Shrink polyethylene; » Plastic pouches. There are apparently sene 35 factories leaking soap and soap powders in Jordan, however, the three largest are IGA, Arab Detergents and this company. Folding Cartons These are made in Jordan by UTI Go. and by the IGA Packaging Factory. They are made in ',/LC and the company has no problems with them. They used to import from Ita ly and the Lebanon. The cartons are fille d on automatic machinery at approximately 100 per minute. The carton is well made and of good appearance. The soap tablet cartons are at present packed by hand but an automatic packing machine w ill be in use shortly. The is used to hold six detergent boxes together for the supermarkets, v.-hioh not only reduces costs but effectively eliminates any powder that may s ift from the boxes. The smaller stores and the military prefer the corrugated boxes. Fxoorts are important; last year 30 Per cent of their powder went to Irag and Kuwait. They have a large carton with carry-strap for three kilograms of powder This is imported from Ita ly and Belgium. Shrink Film This is made locally by Abdeen Orient in Marka. It works well and they have no problems. Gorrurated Boxes All supplies are bought from the Jordan Paper Go. Ir. the past there have been considerable problems with inadequate compression resistance, bad location oi >1 _ -rt/Wocr print -unlity, print in the non-print areas, lack of rub resistance. Lately the "uality has been better rr.d ieiivery times that were very baa (and re lia b ility ) have improved.veu They use about 250,CCC boxes per year. - M1

Coment was made on the elaborateness of the procedure for obtaining the certificate from JPL that is necessary before remission can be obtained to import corrugated boxes. (ZTcte: It does seen unfortunate that it is in JPL's interests to delay the issuance of the certificate.) Pouches

One kilogram, ten kilograms and twenty-five kilocarne are made up into heat-sealed LD roly pouches made from white pigmented material which is nicely printed and on the sarnies seen showed no flaking of print. These are for sale in the ooorer districts. 3asically a very attractive and efficient rack. Design work is done by the management of the factory but now there are two or three designers in Jordan who are beginning to specialise in packaging design. Overwraos This is a coated paper used for the soao tablets. Imported from Germany. They do not have any major problems associated with packaging in technical terms. The problems experienced by the company in getting good seals with adhesives in the winter months were discussed and advice -given on the means of checking the water absorbency of the board. A ll packaging materials brought in are subjected to tax. In the case of aerosols, this is 45 per cent and on cartons 28 per cent tax. 3ottles too would carry a high tax (25 per cent upwards). This has a very limiting effect on the possibilities of developing and introducing new products made in Jordanian factories. Paper scran is sold to the JPG. Lab" turnover is high because Jordanians move freely in the Middle Sast. >

This is Esi independent con"any with no know-how agreement with in outride company. Their products consist entirely of woven polypropylene socks which they siake in widths of 15 O™3, 530am and oOOmm and the length can he as re-mired. They are not at present able to weave the 'b ig b a g ', i.e . the

large bag able to hold up to one ton of product and know, as an intermediate « bulk container, special ecuionent is needed. Plastic thickness is 2.5h* Thev have excess capacity at present. Their Production salacity was » said to be three million sacks per year of which they exsect to sell two million this year. The princioal products oackei are: flour, animal feedstuffs, phosphates and other chemicals and, to a smaller extent, clastic resins (FTC) being made by a local manufacturer ( ’00,000 bays per year at present). Two years ago they were able to export to Syria and Iraq but now they, and other Middle East countries (Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, for example), have th rir ovm sack factories and it is d iffic u lt to compete on price. The chances for exports are not'considered good. The average flour sack costs in the order of 100 fils . They have not considered manufacturing polypropylene plastic strapping as this is said to be manufactured by a conn any in Marka. The plastic resin is imported from Holland and the LT.K.; none has been offered by the Arab States to date. They have no problems with present supplies. They use only clear, unpigmented resin as the local market is interested only in orice. '.Then they need to test the strength of their Products they say they can carry out tensile tests on the fibres and drop tests on sacks fille d with sand. (Mote: Proper drop test equipment may be of value to them periodically.) In addition to buying from this local factory, users are importing from Taiwan (who can 3uonly at a lower price), especially for phosphates and superphosphates. The potential use.ge of -woven plastic sacks is very large, especially with the large Government flour mills coming into production in the near future. The company i.p confident of large orders ir. the future. In anticipation of these, 'hey have requested permission to expand their

capacity by buying new machinery m i if this is granted, they .7 ¿>9 n o problems in meeting the demands. - 143 - nI

Cr.e of their hi j~est crcolem is that local users vri.ll not accert the nornal procedure in which a reasonably lar~e order is placed but bars drawn o ff as required ter aontfai. They want the whole order in a short sauce of tine which nakes efficient planning for the traducing factory very d ifficu lt. - 144 - л

I toi ^L3.3*tic Co* P.0. Эзп 0A63 Date: 1} September '932 Annan, Jordon Person seen: Mr. Abdulvuhao A. Abdeen Tel. ?4lS3

In packaging, this company makes the following products: LD end HD Polyethylene film. 30^. to 'CCv; t Polythene caps of a ll sices: Injecti on-mouldei products such as caps' Plastic drums from 10 litre s to 30 litre s. They can print two-colour or one, flexo. The hulk of their resin is bought froG Tatar (United Arab Doirates). Heat year they expect to be buying from Saudi Arabia, HD polyethylene ani polypropylene. In 1?35 it is expected that polystyrene '.a ll become available. They have feu problems with the duality of rau materials. Dev products are tested on the production machine only. They do not make laminates and believe that this is not being done at the present time in Jordan. Moulds are mostly bournt outside of Jordan. One of the biggest problems facing companies of this type is the multiplicity of companies offering basically the same product. There are said to be op companies involved in plastic conversion of one kind or another in Jordan and this meant a capacity far in excess of the actual needs. A figure of ICO tons per day of converting capacity was suggested as being available (this company normally converts six tons per day'. The vast number of companies in the market means that buyers can play one o ff against the other, eventually buying at prices below cost (or close to it ) since companies must have the orders to survive and this is inhibiting investment in nev; equipment, moulds, etc.

* UNITED NATIONS

UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION

UNIDO l8 December 1981

Request from the Government o f the Hash«nite Kingdom of Jordan

for Special Industrial Services

JOB DESCRIPTION SI/JOR/81/801/11-01/31.7.E

Pentiti* Expert in Packaging Technology

Duration Two and a h alf months

Data required As soon as possible

Duty ***tion Amman, with travel within the country

Purpose of project To define a national policy for an appropriate integrated approach to the development of the packaging industry in the country, in terms of production facilities and supporting institutional structures which would be advisable, namely for centralizing industrial information, training, applied research and.quality control within the fie ld of packaging.

Duties The expert w ill be assigned to the Ministry cf Industry and Trade, and w ill programme and centralize the activities in co-operation with the counterpart national Committee for Packaging. More specifically, the expert w ill be expected to:

1. Carry out a survey and appraisal of the main types of packages which are used at present in the country, particularly for food products;

2. Draft, discuss and elaborate a programme for the development o f the packaging industry in the country, according to the priority needs and national prevailing conditions;

3. Prepare draft terms of reference for individual studies which would be advisable for the development of industries for the production of specific packaging aaterials or packages;

Applications and communications regarding this Job Description should b* sent to: Project Pcrtcnnel Recruitment Section, Industrial Operations Division UNIDO, VIENNA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE, ?.0 . Box 3C0. Vienna. Austria - ufi -

U. Prepare a draft programme and gire iñformation on methodology for the disposal or recovery of used packages, with particular emphasis on the non-degradable plastics.

The expert w ill also he expected to prepare a fin al report, setting out the findings of the mission and recommendations to the Government on further action which might he taken. yaalifxCühions Packaging technologist with university degree or equivalent experience; specific experience in packaging surveys and techno-economic planning of package producer industries; experienc of packaging information, research and quality control centres.

Language English; Arabic an asset.

Background The need has long been recognized in the countries in the Region Information to promote and assist the use of appropriate packages, in order to reduce loss and damage to products, improve their suitability to the conditions and practices of home and export markets, and maintain the nutritive value and innucuity in the specific case of food products.

This project follows the recommendations o f the meetings of the Arab National Packaging Committees, which have been jointly organized by the Industrial Development Centre for Arab States (IDCAS) and UNIDO. In addition to the indisputable value of the project at national level, it can also sake a valuable contribution to the development of packaging industries in the Region.