ColombiaPlast Opens in Bogotá With More Than 320 Exhibitors After a 15% Rise in 2024 Plastics Exports

Organizers Build ColombiaPlast 2026 Around the Circular Economy

The 13th edition of ColombiaPlast opened September 28, 2026, at Corferias (BVC: CORFERIAS) in Bogotá with more than 320 exhibitors from 15 countries showing machinery, raw materials and recycling systems for the plastics, rubber, petrochemical and packaging industries. The fair, organized by Corferias, the Asociación Colombiana de Industrias Plásticas (Acoplásticos, Colombia’s plastics industry association) and Messe Düsseldorf North America, runs through October 2 in the Gran Salón and pavilions 11 through 22, alongside the 35th Feria Internacional Industrial de Bogotá (Bogotá International Industrial Fair, FIB).

Colombian exports of plastic products totaled $778 million USD in 2024, up 15% from the previous year, according to figures from the Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales (National Tax and Customs Directorate, DIAN) and the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (National Administrative Department of Statistics, DANE) cited by the organizers. Imports of plastic raw materials exceed 1 million tons a year, up 20%, while imports of machinery, parts and molds average $136 million USD annually.

Daniel Mitchell, president of Acoplásticos, pointed to those figures in the organizers’ opening announcement: “The plastics industry arrives at ColombiaPlast with numbers that speak to its strength: we exported more than $778 million USD in 2024, and we continue to grow.”

“The challenge is no longer just to produce more, but to produce better. The recycling technologies, recycled resins and eco-design at this fair show that plastic can be part of the solution.”

— Daniel Mitchell, president, Acoplásticos

The fair takes place as Colombia phases in Ley 2232 de 2022 (Law 2232 of 2022), which gradually bans certain single-use plastic products. Under Articles 5 and 6 of the law, which took effect in July 2022, a first group of items, including checkout bags, drinking straws and cotton-swab sticks, has been prohibited since July 2024, and a second group, including disposable plates, cutlery and takeout food containers, will be prohibited starting in July 2030.

The 2024 edition of ColombiaPlast, which Finance Colombia previewed ahead of its opening, drew 297 exhibitors, 159 of them international, across 6,000 square meters of exhibition space, and projected business of $41.2 million USD, according to the organizers.

Acoplásticos is the plastics industry trade association in Colombia.

International Delegations and Suppliers

Multinational exhibitors include Borealis, Syensqo (Euronext Brussels, Euronext Paris: SYENS), Arkema (Euronext Paris: AKE), Krones (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: KRN) and Wittmann, alongside Colombian recycling and plastics-processing companies. According to the organizers, the Chinese delegation includes about 80 companies, while Brazil is represented by 28 companies through the Think Plastic Brazil export program and by machinery manufacturers from the Brazilian Machinery and Equipment Industry Association (ABIMAQ).

Italy is exhibiting as a national delegation for the first time, with the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) grouping eight companies at a single stand in pavilion 17, according to the organizers. Rosella Difrancesco, director of the ITA office in Bogotá, said: “This is the first time Italy has come to ColombiaPlast as a country, with eight companies on a single stand and technology for the entire plastics chain. Colombia and the Andean region are a strategic market, and we want to be close to the converters who are modernizing their plants.”

Themed Zones and Business Matchmaking

The show floor includes four themed zones: GoPlastic, for sustainability solutions; 3DFest, for 3D printing and additive manufacturing; a composite materials area of the Latin American Composite Materials Association (ALMACO); and Ruta Pintando Colombia (Painting Colombia Route), which brings together 16 suppliers to the paint and coatings industry. The academic program runs in pavilion 22 and six additional meeting rooms, and ProColombia and Corferias are hosting a rueda de negocios (business matchmaking session) on September 29 and 30.

Ana Garibello, ColombiaPlast project manager at Corferias, said the edition was planned around visitors’ time: “We designed this edition so that visitors can make the most of every minute: in a single tour they will find suppliers from around the world, machinery in operation, a top-level academic program and business appointments. And with the same ticket they can visit the Bogotá International Industrial Fair, which multiplies the opportunities for those who make purchasing decisions.”

Exhibitor Product Showcases

US-based Ampacet, which also operates in Colombia, is presenting PFAS FREE, a processing aid for food packaging that the company describes as fluorine-free and free of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and says complies with new US and European regulations. Ampacet introduced a PFAS-free polymer processing aid for blown-film extrusion in January 2023. Ampacet is also showing Gastop-Flex, a masterbatch for polyethylene films that the company says reduces oxygen and water-vapor transmission by up to 60%, allowing single-material packaging that is easier to recycle. Mauricio Mejía, technical service supervisor for the Andean region at Ampacet, said: “PFAS, the so-called forever chemicals, have their days numbered in food packaging. With PFAS FREE, Colombian manufacturers can produce with the same efficiency and meet the requirements of the United States and Europe in order to export. And with Gastop-Flex, we show that a package can protect food and, at the same time, be easy to recycle.”

Colombia’s Industrias Prime is presenting Safe-Grip, a tamper-evident cap with a degassing function that the company says is patented. Maura Villalobos Farelo, commercial manager of Industrias Prime, said: “The cap is a product used all over the world, and Safe-Grip shows that packaging innovation is also designed and patented in Colombia. It is a solution that protects the consumer and the product, and one we want to take to new markets from this fair.”

Other exhibitors are showing recycling equipment, recycled resin, container technology and a biodegradation process. China’s Zhejiang Boretech Environmental Engineering, part of BORETECH Resource Recovery Engineering (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 6887), is showing a modular PET bottle washing system that, according to the company, uses about 25% less floor space, a third fewer staff and 13.3% less energy per ton than conventional systems, along with a compact prewasher that it says removes up to 95% of labels with less than 1% material loss. Japan’s Nissei ASB Machine (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6284) is exhibiting cans made of PET, specially shaped containers and its Zero Cooling technology, which the company says shortens production cycles. Ecuador’s NUTEC is showing 100% post-consumer recycled material that the company says replaces 20% to 30% of virgin plastic, and Colombia’s Grobma is presenting a biodegradation technology it calls RAWS (Return to Air, Water and Soil), which the company says allows plastic to biodegrade completely without leaving microplastics.

Admission and Hours

Admission is free for visitors who complete the professional pre-registration. General admission tickets cost $75,000 COP for visitors over 18 and include entry to both ColombiaPlast and FIB; they are sold at the Corferias box offices and on the ColombiaPlast website. The fair opened at noon on September 28 and runs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from September 29 through October 2. Box offices open one hour before the fair and close at 7 p.m. Because it is a trade fair, the organizers advise against bringing minors.

Headline photo: Daniel Mitchell, president of Acoplásticos, and Ana Garibello, ColombiaPlast project manager at Corferias, in front of Acoplásticos signage at Corferias in Bogotá. (Photo courtesy ColombiaPlast)