The global challenges facing the Gulf fertiliser and petrochemical industries will be discussed at a key forum in Bahrain.

The annual Middle East Chemical Week will be held from October 10 to 13.

The event enjoys top government support in the region, including that of the host country, and brings together the cream of the industries' fertiliser, petrochemical, and chemical producers, governments, investors, technology and service providers.

Oil and Gas Affairs Minister and National Oil and Gas Authority (Noga) chairman Abdulhussain Mirza, said it is an honour for the kingdom to host the Middle East Chemical Week, which he described as the only event of its kind in the region.

It consists of two streams, the third annual Middle East Fertiliser Symposium and the fifth annual Petchem Arabia Conference.

'Key issues to be addressed include opportunities to enter new markets, feedstock availability, finance challenges and human resource strategies,' said Dr Mirza.

'The Middle East Chemical Week will serve as a platform to build new relationships with investors, potential partners, clients and suppliers,' he added.

Saudi Arabia has also given the event its official support as a sponsor.

McBride Group director and chief procurement officer Thibaut Eissautier is one of many elite industry speakers at the Middle East Chemical Week.

McBride is a leading supplier of private label household and personal care products.

It supplies over 90 per cent of Europe's leading retailers with household and personal care products, has its own portfolio of brands, and contract manufactures end user products.

Eissautier said the private label market has experienced sizeable growth over the past decades, going from 25 per cent of all UK packaged groceries in the early 1980s to 35 per cent in the early 1990s, and reaching 42 per cent in 2009.

'Across the world private label represents 5 per cent of the household market in North America, 6 per cent in Australasia, 2 per cent in Eastern Europe, 1 per cent in the Middle East and Africa, but over 15 per cent in Western Europe.

In personal care, private label shares in each geography is roughly half those of household.

'If one sees furthermore that private label represents 46 per cent of the packaged groceries market in such a quality-conscious country as Switzerland, then the growth potential of private label for petrochemical and chemical producers should be significant,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service