"From Africa there is always something new," argued Pliny the Elder, a first-century AD Latin writer and author of Naturalis Historia. As much as the quote referred to the extraordinary natural beauty of the boundless African continent, it lends itself well to describe the feeling of Coral present at Woodtech, one of the woodworking industry's annual meeting moments.
The event was held in early December 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya, and was attended by more than 100 companies for a record turnout (about 10,000 visitors).
The African market related to the wood industry is growing at double-digit annual rates (especially in the furniture sector) and is now worth $1.2 billion. Such an increase in business volume has therefore also generated the need to enable workers to operate safely.
In the words of Angelo D'Alessio, executive manager of Coral Middle East, the Dubai branch that handles the African market, the interest generated by the company in its wood dust and wood chip extraction and filtration systems has gone far beyond any wildest expectations, foreshadowing a market penetration in the African area that will become increasingly important. Interesting meetings took place with officials from NEMA, the Kenyan state environmental protection and conservation agency, with the intention of developing close technical and informational cooperation on the growing challenge in protecting the environment and operators from continuing industrial pollution.
So 2023 will open under this sign: the next stops will be Afriwood-branded fairs in January in Ethiopia, February in Tanzania, and June again in Kenya.