The magazine “Packaging” brought us together as a family
Valeriy Krivoshey, chief-in-editor
23.08.2022
You keep in your hand the 150th issue of the “Packaging” magazine. It was edited during turbulent wartime, exactly 26 years after the first issue was published on September 28, 1996. In the context of human life, this is youth. And for those of us who create it, this is the story of the development of Ukraine’s information packaging area, which brought us together. This is an opportunity to share professional knowledge about an amazing thing like packaging with thousands of magazine readers.
In 150 issues of the “Packaging” magazine, there are 2927 articles and information materials, including several hundred posts from 120 specialists of 23 countries. This is a powerful, more than thousandth authoring team of both experienced and young professionals, including 76 doctors and 185 candidates of sciences. These are hundreds of articles about the results of scientific research, innovative developments and their implementation in manufacturing from across the world. This is information about the teams of Ukrainian manufacturers of packaging materials, packaging and equipment, essays about professional specialists in the packaging area, who are the creators of the modern history of the packaging industry in Ukraine.
And this is more than a hundred publications (books, newspapers, catalogues, collections, etc.) giving information about packaging with an aggregate circulation of 73.5 thousand copies. These are 124 packaging conferences where more than 12 thousand specialists heard and discussed 1342 reports. These are 24 competitions for the best packaging and label, the jury of which considered 1436 samples of packaging, 421 sample labels of 273 Ukrainian companies from 54 cities and 903 developments of young designers from 21 universities. And all these information events were organized and held by specialists of the Information Analysis Center “Upakovka”, which is the founder and publisher of the “Packaging” magazine and whose long-standing slogan is: “Information is our profession”. Today the magazine editorial staff, its authoring team, along with our Ukrainian and international partners has formed a strong packaging family that has united and is expanding a modern Ukrainian information packaging area.
This year the preparation and publication of four current issues of the “Packaging” magazine, together with the 150th edition, came at the time of the aggressive war of the northern neighbor against Ukraine. The editorial board staff relocated to Poland, some of employees relocated to other countries and cities in Ukraine, but continued to work without a break. It was difficult, but our colleagues from Poland, Latvia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland, Hungary, South Korea, Japan, as well as packaging organisations such as the European EPIC and the world WPO helped us. During this time, participation in packaging exhibitions and conferences in Warsaw and Cologne, Hertogenbosch and Milan, WPO and EPIC meetings and numerous meetings with European packaging companies helped the editorial board to convey information about the current state of the Ukrainian packaging industry, destroyed and damaged enterprises, the manufacture of packaging products under the conditions of limited feedstock and spare parts supplies, logistical challenges and the lack of a proper number of employees to the European packaging community and the world.
All this time, the magazine was filled with interviews with specialists of Ukrainian packaging companies from Dnipro and Vinnytsia, Kharkiv and Kyiv, Kalush and Lviv, other cities and towns about their work in the conditions of war, about the reconstruction of destroyed industries and attempts to resume the packaging manufacture for food and industrial products which is so necessary for the population and its defenders, Ukrainian soldiers. Additionally, we continued to prepare articles and information materials from our numerous writers on various issues of packaging, touching on all aspects of its development – from feedstock, materials and packaging to waste recycling. Despite the unusual working conditions of the editorial board, all issues of the “Packaging” magazine this year were published on time, they are placed in the public domain on the Information Analysis Center “Upakovka” website www.upakjour.com.ua, and information about their release can be found on the pages of the magazine on Facebook and LinkedIn.
The 150th issue of “Packaging” magazine is a significant anniversary of our entire packing family, which we congratulate and thank for the active cooperation during the first quarter of the century of the magazine’s existence. Having published the anniversary issue of the “Packaging” magazine the editorial board has already begun working on the next, sixth issue of this year.
Our motto: “Don’t stop!”. Only all together, each in his place, each with his profession add to our Victory!
Thank you for your understanding and support
Valeriy Krivoshey, Ph.D. in Chemistry
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