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In the presence of the Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, and the second Vice-President of the Valencian Government and Minister of Industry, Vicente Rambla, the newspaper El Mundo presented CAIBA with the Innovators Award for Best Business-Technology Institute Collaboration.

This award recognises the efforts made by CAIBA in developing a project in collaboration with AINIA, the Agri-Food Technology Institute of the Valencian Community, to increase the barrier effect of PET containers by adding an innovative material: nanoclays.

The Innovators Awards, in which Bancaja and CAM are also involved, recognise the work of Valencian companies that have managed to drive forward projects that are unique in the world at the highest scientific and business level.

In her speech, the Spanish Minister of Science said that "to a great extent, the track record of the winning companies demonstrates that theirs is a collective triumph”, and added that they are "fantastic representatives of Valencia’s capacity to innovate".

At the beginning of 2009, CAIBA plans to start up the new integration with Seville company Miguel Gallego S.A. (MIGASA), which specialises in refining and marketing olive oil, seeds and orujo (eau-de-vie).

CAIBA is taking part in the CARBONFOOTPACK project set up by ITENE the Packaging, Transport and Logistics Technology Institute of the Valencian Community. The project will allow companies to ascertain the parameters that have the greatest impact on the environment in terms of the emission of greenhouse gases, based on calculating and hence minimizing their carbon footprint and contributing to protecting and improving the environment.

CAIBA’s Product Innovation Laboratory is heading up a pioneering international research project on the incorporation of nanoclays to increase the barrier effect of PET containers.

The project, which is being developed in conjunction with AINIA, the Agri-Food Technology Institute of the Valencian Community, aims to improve the properties of food containers to prevent oxygen from entering and carbon dioxide from leaving them, thus increasing the useful life of the product on supermarket shelving and dispensing with far more expensive multi-layered solutions.