EPAL board meeting on 14 September, 2021 in Zurich

EPAL board meeting on 14 September, 2021 in Zurich

The board of the European Pallet Association e.V. (EPAL) met on 14 September 2021 in Zurich for its first face-to-face meeting since November 2019. As all the meetings in 2020 and the previous meetings in 2021 had to be held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a great pleasure for all participants to finally meet again in person.

Under the chairmanship of the President of EPAL, Robert Holliger, the members of the Board and the managing directors of the national member associations discussed the current development of the EPAL Euro pallet exchange pool. Despite the challenges posed by the shortage of wood and the significant increase in the price of wood, EPAL saw production of EPAL Euro pallets grow by approximately 5.2% from January to July 2021. The growth in repairs is even clearer: due to the continuing high demand for used EPAL Euro pallets, the number of EPAL Euro pallets repaired increased by approximately 10.8%.

Davide Dellavalle, representative of EPAL Italia on the EPAL Board: “The significance of the circular economy continues to grow in both Italy and all other European countries. The reuse and exchange of packaging in order to conserve resources and avoid waste are therefore increasingly important considerations for many companies in both retail and industry. The exchangeable EPAL Euro pallet
– new or used – is the ideal solution. So it is hardly surprising that the production and repair of EPAL Euro pallets has increased so substantially – by more than 13% in Italy.”