The global flexible packaging market is expected to reach over $99 million by 2018, representing an average annual growth rate of 5.1%. [1] Applications in prepared meats, poultry, beverages, fruits, frozen foods, candy and snack foods are all helping to drive growth. This rise of flexible packaging is also due, in part, to the unique opportunity that its lightweight nature lends to improved sustainability efforts and lower transportation costs throughout the supply chain.
Considering the enormous amount of food that is packaged globally each year, even small reductions in packaging material and weight can have a marked impact on the environment. Flexible packaging delivers value here by providing a high product-to-package radio, using a smaller amount of material to package each product than other, more rigid formats. This increase in product-to-package ratio holds true for secondary packaging as well, where flexible packaging helps improve space utilization, fitting more units in a given space to reduce the number of shipments required in transport.