Indian pkg sector eying immense growth prospects to serve dairy sector
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Nandita Vijay, Bengaluru
February 27 , 2015
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The Indian and global packaging industries perceive the dairy sector as a
great source of opportunities to provide advanced solutions focussing
on design flexibility and delivering high-barrier technologies.
This
observation was made at Futurepac, an industry-focussed
seminar-cum-networking-event aimed at analysing the emerging trends in
plastic bottle technology for dairy packaging. It was held in Bengualuru
recently, and organised by Manjushree Technopack Ltd, in association
with Reliance Industries.
With the dairy sector increasingly
opting for the retail mode, its range of milk versions like
ultra-high-temperature- (UHT) processed, skimmed, powders, yoghurt,
cheese, butter, cream, milk-based sweets and ice cream enable the
packing sector unleash their innovative concepts to offer bottles, tetra
packs and rigid plastic packaging, covering cups, bottles, pots and
cans, besides closures, enabling higher shelf life of the dairy
products.
Vimal Kedia, managing director, Manjushree Technopack,
said, “Packaging has been a high priority for the dairy sector. Plastic
packaging solutions have emerged as one of the most attractive options
in dairy packaging innovation. It has introduced consumers to the
simplest conveniences, such as a longer shelf life and ease of handling
consumption and storage.”
Prof N C Saha, director and principal
executive officer, Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) (which was set up
by the ministry of commerce and industry), stated that packaging was a
sunrise industry in the modern marketing landscape.
Saha stated,
“It is driven by the traditional demand for rigid packaging.
Particularly for milk-based products, packaging is for preservation and
presentation. The dairy sector has three options in packaging:
returnable containers like glass bottles, single-service plastic bottles
and polythene sachets, and tetra aseptic packs for UHT milk. Besides
versions of dairy products like flavoured milk in bottles, dahi in cups
or pouches, and paneer, cheese and ghee in barrier packs are now
offered.”
Decoding the solutions for milk packaging in plastic
bottles Rajat Kedia, director, Manjushree Technopack, said, “Milk needs
to b processed to make its right for packaging. There are companies in
the world which specialise in this business. They include Krones, GEA,
APV and Stork. However, serving the dairy sector is not easy, because
milk is difficult to process. There are quality risk levels, colour
change, vitamin loss and issues of taste.”
“Therefore, there is
the need for a different product packaging treatment process, container
closure type, filling process, after-filling process and storage
conditions. There are advantages of bottles vis-a-vis cartons. The
former has high shock resistence, is 100 per cent recyclable and is easy
to handle,” he added.
Mike Rockell, director, Xenos Aseptic
Bottling Systems, New Zealand, said, “Poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET)
bottles were used to increase the shelf life of milk. Nestle, too,
proved PET’s success packaging its chocolate milk in it globally.”
“There
is also the need for aspectic processing and filling technology for
milk packaging. This is where our aspectic fillers ensure low chemical
use and no waste water. There are camera systems which ensure check and
reject every bottle that is incorrectly filled or capped,” he added.
“There
is also an automatic system of automatic ejection of caps. Therefore,
aseptic packaging for bottles, cartons and pouches enables attractive
graphics, product visibility, varied shapes, easy first-time opening,
effortless pouring, seal on reclose, pack size range, cent per cent
recyclability, a long shelf life and sales premium,” Rockell stated.
Paul
Schönheit, project engineer, aseptic technology, Krones AG, Germany,
highlighted the company’s equipment for milk processing units, and its
aseptic processing technology.
Shrikant Agarkar, GEA Procomac,
Italy, indicated that the company’s expertise in aseptic and traditional
filling lines for dairy products would enable easy single-point control
for bottle sterilisation.
“A visible trend is the shift towards
high-barrier packaging that is shelf-stable,” said Saha, who added that
IIP was now researching on a viable packaging solution for liquid
jaggery and ethnic foods to ensure that it could increase their shelf
life with high-barrier properties for oxygen and carbon dioxide.
“The
institute was able to increase their shelf life from ten hours to 75
days, proving that wonders could be achieved with innovative and
attractive polymeric materials,” he added.
“Similarly, the
Indian packaging industry has several opportunities to cater to the
fresh milk market. Here lightweight and easy-to-chill options would
create a new dimension for the packaging sector,” stated Saha.
He
felt that it was high time Indian packaging researchers focussed on
sustainable innovative concepts, which could be moulded using lesser
energy, cost-effective and viable.
The Indian market size for
plastic packs is estimated at $15.6 billion, and is growing at over 15
per cent annually. Seven per cent of the growth is from the rigid pack
space.
While the United States is the largest consumer of rigid
packaging, it would be soon overtaken by China. However, India would be
among the top ten players in the rigid plastic space. Flexible packaging
was valued at $130 billion in fiscal year 2014, and is estimated to
touch the $163 billion-mark by 2017. The global packaging industry is to
be valued at $820 billion in 2016. Currently, India stands at $24.6
billion and is placed second globally, after China which is worth $28
billion. While global growth is five per cent, India registers 15 per
cent and China clocks 18 per cent.
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