Strong British Presence at Arabplast 2019

Arabplast 2019 took place in Dubai’s World Trade Centre, between 5th and 8th January. Fourteen exhibitors featured on the British Pavilion (coordinated by the British Plastics Federation) making it the largest UK pavilion at this show to date.

Run by Messe Dussledorf, Arabplast takes place every two years and is recognised as one of the most important industry events, featuring exhibitors from 41 countries, attracting  20,000 visitors.

“Arabplast was ideal to show off our instruments to key new customers.  The quality of enquiries was good and certainly would have been difficult to see if we had tried to arrange visits. Overall a worthwhile exercise and the GB branding certainly helped.” Andy Dickinson, EMEA Sales Manager, Systech Instruments.

British Pavilion of exhibitors
The British Pavilion was located at a prime location within Hall 6, appearing as one of the international halls, shared with pavilions from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France to name a few… The companies representing the British Pavilion specialised in sectors ranging from plastics machinery, processors, materials and services. 

“Our attendance was part of the British Pavilion, helpfully organised by the British Plastics Federation (BPF). Longworth are proud members of the BPF and gratefully received their support with event arrangements, accommodation and stand build before and during our visit to Dubai. Our initial aim was to make new contacts, meet potential agents and shortlist some possible business partners for a joint venture for DEECOM® to the Middle East.” Jen Hill, B&M Longworth 

The fourteen pavilion exhibitors were:

"As members of the British Plastic Federation (BPF) we exhibited at Arabplast 2019 within the BPF Pavilion. There is already a huge amount of ecodek® in Dubai, as we were tasked with developing a specific substructure for the Jumeirah Beach walkway – which runs for 14km along the Persian Gulf coastline. Exhibiting enabled us to spend time with our distributor in UAE, and organise side meetings whilst at the show. We picked up two very large project enquiries. Thank you BPF for all the support and help in the run up to the event, which has been really helpful." Jonathan Cooper, Managing Director, Ecodek

For full listings of the British Pavilion exhibitors please visit www.British-Pavilion.com

Some of the British exhibitors had previous business experience dealing with the Middle East market. However, some were completely new to the region and benefited from being part of an organised group where they could learn from the experienced exporters. Being part of the pavilion also enabled companies to book smaller stands than the official show organiser’s requirements, which was a good way to test the market cost-effectively. 

Department for International Trade (DIT) grants
The BPF administered the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) grants of £2,500 for eligible British exhibitors, nine companies of which were supported by the funding. The DIT grants are crucial support to UK exporters who are either new or developing exporters, but also to those who want to grow their exports. The grant has helped the SMEs secure new business on many occasions, finding a local agent or distributer and visiting a market they wouldn’t have reached otherwise.
For more information on DIT’s Tradeshow Access Programme grants: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tradeshow-access-programme.

Dubai and UAE market opportunities
United Arab Emirates is a Federation of seven emirates with the federal capital in Abu Dhabi and population of 9.3m. The commercial capital and regional hub is Dubai. As mentioned by United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy, there are many reasons to choose the UAE as an export destination: English is widely spoken, there is no taxation on personal income and capital gains and above all UAE is a good base to use as a bridge into other Gulf markets and an important market for re-export to other countries. The UK and UAE governments have set a bilateral trade goal of £25 billion by 2020.

The top goods exported from UK into the UAE in 2017 were (apart from gems and precious metals worth £3.17 billion) machines, engines, pumps worth £1.25 billion, vehicles worth £880 million, electronic equipment at £810 million, aircraft at £385 million, iron or steel products at £198 million, pharmaceuticals at £186 million, perfumes, cosmetics at £177 million, medical, technical equipment at £140 million and plastics at £110 million as reported by BCB Dubai.

According to gov.uk there are more than 4700 British brands in the UAE including BP, Shell, Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, Mott McDonald, SERCO, Standard Chartered, HSBC and Fortnum and Mason.

Expo 2020 Dubai is expected to generate almost £20 billion for the UAE economy with construction relating to the event expected to contribute the largest percentage. Expo 2020, which will take place between 20 Oct 2020-10 Apr 2021 will be the the first World Expo to be held in the UAE and the wider Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region.

Arabplast 2021
The next edition of Arabplast will take place in Dubai, UAE in January 2021.

For more information on British Pavilion at foreign plastics exhibitions please visit www.bpf.co.uk