Doubling of processed food sales behind Indian packaging growth

The Assocham-TechSci joint report found that the segment had been growing at a compound annual rate of around 16% between 2010 and 2015.

“In the wake of the increasing disposable incomes and growing number of nuclear families, the market share of packaged food in the processed food market is expected to marginally increase to about 29% in 2016 from about 28% in 2015​,” it said.

The US$4bn plastic food packaging market currently accounts for around 63% in India’so overall plastic packaging sales, which are currently valued at about US$7bn.

The market for multilayer plastic food packaging is estimated at about US$1bn—some 22% of the total segment.

“Growing usage of packaging material in various food service outlets together with increasing demand for packaged beverage and expanding working class population has given impetus to food packaging industry in India​,” said DS Rawat, secretary general of Assocham.

The report came as the government announced it had been looking to double the quantity of foods processed in India by the end of its term in power. 

"Once five years of this government are up, the food processing levels which are at 10 per cent should at least have reached 20%​,” said Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the food processing minister, who has recently been travelling to promote India as a destination for foreign direct investment.

"In my recent trip to the UK all top retailers in the food business including Sainsbury, Tesco, Harrods, Marks & Spencer, whoever was into food, evinced huge interest​," she added.