Central/South American flexible packaging market to top US$5bn

Flexible packaging output in Central and South America will reach US$5.3 billion by 2015 with regional converters seeing growth at an average of 4.6 percent each year until then.
 
PCI Films Consulting’s Central and South American Flexible Packaging Market to 2015 report said the spread of supermarket retailing, growing populations and increasing numbers of single person households, working women and young consumers will contribute towards flexible packaging growth.
 
There are prospects for further consolidation among producers, and environmental considerations will tend to benefit flexible packaging as pressure is applied to manufacturers to reduce packaging volumes and post-packaging waste. 
 
Since 2005, PCI Films Consulting said the Central and South American flexible packaging market has grown by an average of 5.3 percent per annum to US$4.3 billion, driven by growing economies and a burgeoning middle class, driving improvements in supply chain infrastructure and food processing. Brazil alone accounts for around 48 percent of regional flexible packaging demand, with Colombia and Argentina taking the figure up to 67 percent.
 
PCI Films Consulting said the Brazilian food industry is described as “modern” by international standards, and 40 percent of food supplied to Brazil’s 200 million population now comes through the supermarket channel. That demand will only increase in the run up to global high profile events such as the FIFA 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympic Games, it suggested.
 
Most of the flexible packaging demand is satisfied by internal producers, with only one percent imported and two percent exported outside Central and South America. Some raw materials, notably PET film, still come in from China and India. There is substantial BOPP and PE film production, though only one regional PET film producer.
 
As the flexible packaging market has continued to develop, demand for higher barrier, higher specification packaging has increased and local converters have made investments to substitute the volumes previously imported.
 
PCI Films consultant Paul Gaster said: ‘The Central and South American flexible packaging market is now well served by local production so any multinational converter still planning to grow its business in the region would do well to consider forging alliances with or acquiring local converters.’