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There's never a dull moment in the dynamic Australasian packaging industry, with M&A activity, leadership changes, and product innovation keeping our news desk busy all year long.

From Orora's booming growth over the financial year, to the Australian Government's pledge to make all packaging in the country reusable, compostable or recyclable by 2025, to needles in strawberries and plastic bags out of supermarkets, to the first ever Print21 + PKN LIVE joint event, 2018 was a rollercoaster of a year for the packaging industry... and PKN was there to cover all the news highlights.

See our review of the year that was in the latest issue of PKN magazine.

Food & Drink Business

Australia’s national science agency has proposed cutting up to 52 net roles from its Agriculture and Food division and exiting food ingredient innovation, precision fermentation, microbial technologies, and its national food innovation network – changes the food tech sector says leave a significant gap.

The NZ$307 million sale of the Pōkeno facility to Abbott is complete, delivering a material debt reduction for the Canterbury dairy processor – but significant refinancing pressures remain as the company pursues its Stabilise, Simplify, Scale recovery plan.

Pure Foods Tasmania has entered a binding agreement to acquire the assets of Brilliant Food Australia, a premium seafood brand. The $300,000 deal adds the brand to the Woodbridge Smokehouse stable and lifts PFT’s revenue base by approximately 24 per cent.