The Asia-Pacific region is leading the world in sales and consumption of flexible packaging, and will help drive a 5.1 per cent compound annual growth in the global market in the next five years.
A new report by research firm MarketsandMarkets, Flexible Packaging Market, Global Trends and Forecast to 2018, values the flexible packaging market at $US73,825.3 million ($A78,676.64 million) in 2012, and estimates this will grow to $US99,621.9 million by 2018.
The report notes that with penetration of flexible packaging in many traditional developed markets close to saturation, developing countries are becoming the main drivers for growth.
It said the four nations with the highest growth potential for flexible packaging are India, China, Russia and Brazil, all of which are poised for high growth rates.
China and India in particular will drive growth in the Asia-Pacific region, which is already the biggest regional market for flexible packaging and which will enjoy compound growth of over seven per cent to 2018.
The European market will grow by 3.9 per cent over the same period, driven mainly by the East European countries.
The market in the rest of the world, the report said, will experience compound growth of six per cent a year to 2018,
In terms of applications, while the food industry remains by far the biggest user of flexible packaging, the market for pharmaceutical packaging will experience the stronger growth, with a compound annual growth rate of 7.1 per cent to 2018 due to the increased awareness of public health, increasing product processing units, convenience packaging and rising consumption of generic drugs.
