There are both advantages or disadvantages in many sectors because of covid-19 pandemic. But the packaging sector around the world has significant benefits than other industries.
As other countries were shut down due to deadly virus, stock up on necessary supplies such as medicines, dairy products, foods and vegetables, sanitizer, masks and many more have been in high demand. All these products require packaging, and production has been higher than before the virus. The consumer or customer prefers the packed products rather than initially available. Hence, the demand for the packaging industry has increased due to the pandemic.
INCREASE OF PLASTIC MATERIALS BUSINESS
In the packaging industry, by material, the plastics sector has a high demand. A lot of manufacturers and companies who initially used other materials prefer plastic for apparent health care safety, as it is much safer, more affordable, long-lasting and for years the medical industry has been using plastic for medicine packaging. Plastic also helps in stopping the spread of diseases. During the lockdown period, the products are supposed to have a longer self-life, and expiring soon would lead to starvation as the people would not be able to buy a new replacement for the expired as most of the production units were closed. The employees were also asked to stay quarantine and self-isolation.
DEMAND TO KEEP UP
Many packaging manufacturing companies who were not able to increase their production as per the high demand are not able to sustain in the market after the pandemic is over because most of the organizations that relayed those packaging firms have already shifted to new companies to full fill the demand in the market.
INCREASE E-COMMERCE AND ONLINE RETAILS MARKET
With the rise of online retailing, online retailers also launching their own private labels brand. These providing consumers with a much wider choice of products and channels to buy. The rise in online labels further boost food and beverages packaging market as online private labels to grow 1.3 to 1.5 times faster than e-commerce platforms and continue to generate 1.8 to 2 times higher margin than external brands.
FUTURE DEMAND POST COVID-19 CHALLENGES
• There will be demand for 3s packaging mainly covers safety, security, and sustainability of packaging.
• We have seen during lockdown e-commerce have huge demand.
• Need to focus on developing active packaging especially antivirus packaging in the future, no touch packaging, intelligent packaging to track and trace the product during the supply chain.
• Increase the demand for automation, end-line solution, aseptic packaging, Robotics, etc.
