Report: global aseptic packaging market to reach 153 billion litres by 2016

By 2016, the global aseptic packaging market will reach 153 billion litres, predicts food and drink consultancy Zenith International and Warrick Research, a food, beverage and packaging research group. Demand is expected to come from south and south-east Asia and China, where growth is forecast at 11% a year and 3.5% a year respectively.

Zenith and Warrick released the statistics in the 2012 Global Aseptic Packaging Report.

Global aseptic packaging 2008-2016.

In 2011, the world market for aseptically packed products amounted to 123 billion litres and 269 billion packs. While volumes have grown by around 5% per year since 2008, south and south-east Asia has shown the greatest increase, at 22% a year, the research found.

White drinking milk constitutes 39% of aseptically packed products, with beverages accounting for 37% of this amount and other dairy or food products making up the remainder. Zenith and Warrick say that aseptic filling has yet to make a significant impact in food markets, but some established niche applications exist. Sauces, tomato products and baby food are recent areas of development.

Global aseptic packaging breakdown 2012.

“The market for aseptic packaging developed in Europe and the industry supplying it has been centred on Europe,” said David Warrick, Director of Warrick Research. “This report shows the market shift to Asia in the past four years and raises the prospect of this continuing in the next few years.”

“At a time of economic recession in much of the world, the aseptic packaging market has grown at over 5% a year in the past four years as the technology is well positioned to supply the needs of new markets and applications,” added Esther Renfrew, Market Intelligence Director at Zenith International.

The report predicts that value-added dairy products will be a fast-growing area of demand for aseptic filling systems.