The 'Make in India' mission is to be considered as a mantra by the packaging industry to become a manufacturing hub in India, according to Dr N C Saha, director, Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP), Mumbai. Dr Saha made this observation while speaking on 'Recent Advances and Opportunities of Packaging Technologies in Food Processing' as one of the speakers at Make in India week here recently.
Dr Saha pointed out that though packaging industry is not considered as a core sector, it has been indirectly impacted by 'Make in India' mission. “It is a well known fact that any of the goods among the core sectors will be unable to grow without packaging,” he said.
The Indian packaging industry has been constantly adapting to the changing needs of its consumers. With growing purchasing power among urban Indians, the demand for quality packaging will offer greater scope for automation in the industry. Moreover it is already embracing modern technologies and processes to stay ahead of the game. Case in point is active, intelligent and smart packaging, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), retort packaging and so on.
With a turnover of $24.6 billion and a growth rate of 13% to 15% annually, the Indian packaging industry is expected to reach $32 billion by 2020. At present, the Indian packaging industry is ranked 11th in the world.
A large part of this will come from just using the amount of food produced and making it reach the people who need it. Dr Saha offered the following data points to substantiate his argument:
1. There are over 800 million people in the world who are unable to meet their daily calorie needs and more than 2 billion people suffer from nutritional deficiencies. Yet over one third of the food we produce is never consumed.
2. The 31% of retail food supply goes uneaten. Reducing food wastage is the biggest challenge that food processors, retailers and consumers face across the world.
3. The growth of food packaging sector has nearly doubled to 13.7 per cent during the last four years.
