Ricciarelli signs packaging machinery deal with Nigerian group BUA

Ricciarelli, an Italian company specialising in food packaging, has announced an important collaboration project with the BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate poised to become the second largest pasta producer in the country.

The agreement covers the design and installation of several complete packaging lines (from weighing machines to final wrapping machines) for short and long pasta formats to be installed at the plant in Port Hacourt, the administrative capital of Rivers State.

“We are extremely pleased with this new collaboration as it strengthens our development plans in Africa, a market where pasta consumption is increasing rapidly driven by the high rate of population growth,” said Ricciarelli’s sales director Daniele Bagni.

For several years, the Italian company has been supplying packaging technologies to companies across the continent, from Tunisia to Morocco, Egypt, Ivory Coast and Angola, as well as its recent installations in Cameroon and Mauritania.

Thanks to a continuous process of innovation and research, the company has succeeded in growing its business across a variety of product sectors by designing and building increasingly complex and sophisticated packaging and palletising machinery.

The expansion of the BUA Group’s site in Port Hacourt is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. When fully operational, it will produce 720 tonnes of pasta per day on 5 lines, bringing the group’s total capacity to 1,440 tonnes on 10 lines.

Image credits: Ricciarelli Spa