Increasing consumer demands for convenient packages, coupled with an industry-wide push for sustainable shelf-ready designs has the global flexible packaging market poised to eclipse the $290 billion mark by 2023, according to Flexible Packaging Market Assessment from PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. With an estimated 3.9 percent CAGR, the market in the U.S. and Canada projects to achieve $44 billion.
As has traditionally been the case due to its early adoption of flexible packaging, the food industry remains the largest user, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the flexible packaging in circulation. With convenience as a noted driver, food figures to remain the dominant segment due to the overall rise in ready-to-eat foods, snacks and frozen meals. Two segments called out by the report as expected to grow the largest by 2023 are processed fruits and vegetables and baby food, each in flexible pouches.