PCI’s just published report on India’s US$5.3 billion flexible packaging market provides highly detailed analysis of 14 end-use categories, including information on category size and growth trends, material specifications, formats and trends, and leading converter suppliers. In a market where nearly 40% of demand is accounted for by just two categories, dried foods and tobacco and ethnic chewing products, flexible packaging usage for meat, poultry and fish applications is very small at an estimated US$54 million per annum, but the sector is growing rapidly.
In the five years to 2014, Indian demand for flexible packaging for meat, poultry and fish grew by almost 17% per annum, albeit from a very low level. All the indications are that this rate of growth will continue at similar levels over the next five years. The packaging of chilled and frozen processed meat is thought to use about 17,000 tonnes of laminated films and this volume is growing rapidly. Much of the packed volume of processed meats and sausages is exported. A typical structure used is BOPET film laminated to a co-extruded EVOH / PE bag which can include anti-fog properties and has the ability to withstand low temperatures. Some 3-side seal retort pouches are also used in the packaging of fish products, with most of these pouches imported from South Korea.
Typically, meat and poultry products are packed in high oxygen barrier plastics designed to significantly prolong the product’s shelf-life through the use of Controlled Atmosphere Packaging (CAP) and Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) methods. Apart from EVOH coextruded films, other popular oxygen barrier films materials in this segment are based around Polyvinylidene Chloride (PVdC) and Polyamide (Nylon).
There are currently believed to be few Indian flexible packaging converters to be currently operating in this sector in any meaningful way, with much of the volume of specialist barrier and shrink films used being imported from the US and Europe.
Given the size of the Indian market and growing consumer wealth driving convenience packaging, volumes are still very small but there is every chance they will continue to grow significantly as increasing volumes of processed meat products are sold via food retailers in the major cities. However, the rate of increase will crucially depend on how fast improvements can be made in cold chain distribution infrastructure, which is currently in its infancy and non-existent across large parts of the country.