The Quality Assurance Manager of Unilever Ghana, Kofi Essuman has urged SME owners to employ packaging as a tool to enter the global market.

“A lot of companies have grown because they spend time researching into the type of packaging to use”, said Mr. Essuman.

“We can make it if we will be able to improve our packaging. It is time we start looking at things globally. Companies abroad are successful with exports primarily because they spend time and money researching into the right kind of packaging to use”, he added.

Kofi Essuman who is also the President of the Ghana Packaging Institute said the global market “is a huge market, but the moment you start thinking small, then you have a problem with packaging because one issue of packaging is that, if you are packaging in small quantities, the price turns to be high. And if you want to cut down on your expenses of manufacturing, one of the victims is packaging. But if you do not start with something that is attractive, there is no way you are going to grow”.

Although Ghana still has a long way to go in terms of packaging of products, it has improved over the last decade due to the influx of goods resulting in a competitive world market. However areas in the manufacturing sector like clothing, handicrafts and groceries need more attention in terms of packaging in order to make them price-competitive globally.