US Meat, Poultry & Seafood Packaging

Report Overview

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Molded fiber trays continue to penetrate the market.

This study examines the US market for meat, poultry, and seafood packaging, defined as primary and secondary packaging materials sold to food manufacturers, primarily for products targeted at retail, foodservice, and food manufacturing markets. Historical data are provided for 2013, 2018, and 2023, with forecasts through 2033. Annual data is provided for 2020-2027. Data are provided in current dollar value and units. Also provided is an analysis of key industry players.

Demand for meat, poultry, and seafood packaging is forecast to increase nearly 1.0% per year to 62.1 billion units in 2028, with market value rising 2.5% per year to $10.8 billion. The packaging market for meat, poultry, and seafood is especially challenging due to the importance of meeting the specific performance and safety criteria required for these foods, while at the same time remaining cost effective and adhering to changing sustainability goals and consumer preferences:

• Premium, high-performance products – such as vacuum skin packaging, sealed trays, and brick packs – will see the strongest unit advances despite their higher costs due to their ability to extend shelf life.

• Packaging for fresh and frozen formats continues to see better growth than conventional shelf-stable formats, which are somewhat lagging owing to consumer preferences.

• Plastic packaging will continue to account for the largest absolute gains due to its strong performance properties that competitive products have mostly not been able to challenge. Paper packaging will lag due to weakness in mature box and carton applications. Molded fiber will experience growth well above the industry average but fail to gain significant market share.

Case-Ready Products That Extend Shelf Life Expected to See Notable Sales Growth

Historically, the packaging of meat, poultry, and seafood has been dominated by commodity formats such as foam trays and wrap – often packaged directly in-store – owing to their low-cost and adequate performance properties. However, case-ready and high-performance packaging products are expected to continue to take share from these traditional formats:

• Despite their higher cost, products such as vacuum skin packaging, stand-up pouches, brick packs, and sealed trays will continue to see the strongest gains due to the variety of advantages they offer – extended shelf-life, reduced leakage, lighter weight, and a more premium appearance.

• Additionally, these products offer retailers labor savings as meat, poultry, and seafood products do not need to be packaged by store workers and can be immediately shelved upon receipt.

Fresh Format Drives Increasing Use of Better-Performing & More Advanced Packaging

Fresh refrigerated products will account for the largest absolute gains for meat, poultry, and seafood packaging as consumers continue to prefer fresh foods due to their perceived superior nutritional properties and taste. Packaging that assists in maintaining freshness and keeping fresh meat, poultry, and seafood safe will benefit the most:

• The continued penetration of point-of-processing packaging, wherein the protein is packaged immediately after being slaughtered and processed before being shipped, is boosting demand for high-value, high-performance formats that extend shelf-life.

• Demand is rising for packaging that improves the tracking and labeling of fresh meat, poultry, and seafood products – such as through the use smart labels and RFID chips – ensuring their safe shipment and raising consumer confidence in the safety, sustainability, and quality of these proteins.

Historical Market Trends

The market for meat, poultry, and seafood packaging – a segment of the broader US food packaging industry – consists of packaging used to ship, protect, display, and/or prolong the shelf life of fresh, frozen, and processed items throughout the supply chain, from slaughterhouses, poultry farms, and food processors to retail stores and foodservice establishments.

Major factors that determine demand for meat, poultry, and seafood packaging include:

• consumer food preferences and expenditures, including both spending for food eaten at home and food eaten or prepared away from home

• macroeconomic factors, such as levels of personal consumption expenditures and disposable income, and overall economic growth and inflation

• demographic trends (e.g., size and age distribution of the resident population, ethnic composition of the population, household size and formation activity, and geographic migration patterns)

• domestic livestock, poultry, and seafood output

• trends in meat, poultry and seafood imports packaged outside of the US

• input costs including raw materials and energy costs

• package design considerations and properties of various packaging items in terms of protective requirements

Packaging Materials Competition

• Among the major material types packaging, plastic products are expected to see the strongest growth. Plastic packaging types – such as high-barrier films, thermoformed trays, and pouches – are key for manufacturers looking to extend shelf life and functionality. Suppliers pursuing sustainability are focused on the development of lighter weight and longer lasting products.

• Expanding demand for more ecofriendly packaging is also supporting sales of paper and paperboard packaging including recyclable paperboard trays. Nonetheless, efforts to reduce excess packaging will limit sales of larger paper and paperboard packaging segments such as corrugated boxes and folding cartons.

• Metal packaging – composed almost entirely of cans – will experience declines in unit terms, owing to weak prospects for the canned segment overall due to an increasing consumer preference for fresh foods, as well as competition from retort pouches, which are lighter weight and use less material.

• Though niche, molded fiber – consisting of trays – will experience by far the fastest growth in demand due to its great image of sustainability and product differentiation capabilities.

• Other materials used in the packaging of meat, poultry, and seafood include glass, wood, and mesh, for which real demand will decline due to market maturity.

Pricing & Inflation

As a result of the highly competitive nature of the packaging industry, pricing is a key factor in the success or failure of a given packaging type, particularly since multiple packaging types can be used for many applications. Packaging suppliers often find themselves squeezed between a few large raw material suppliers and a handful of major meat packers and processors, restricting their ability to adjust prices and pass along higher raw material costs to their customers.

The chief determinant of pricing is the cost of raw materials:

• Raw materials primarily include plastic resins, paper, paperboard, steel, aluminum, glass, nonwovens, and fluff pulp.

• Smaller volume raw materials include inks, adhesives, coatings, and specialty additives such as oxygen absorbers.

Price competition is intense, both between different materials and between vendors of similar products, because of the prevalence of well-established, commodity-type items such as corrugated boxes, folding cartons, metal cans, plastic and paper bags, and foam trays. Advantages for better performing plastic packaging types tend to fluctuate depending on economic conditions, raw material costs, excess capacity, and price discounting.

Given the wide array of products, materials, and sizes of items, prices in the meat, poultry, and seafood packaging industry vary considerably both between different product types and within specific product varieties.

In 2021, the price of many raw material inputs used in the production of meat, poultry, and seafood packaging – plastic, paper, glass, and aluminum – increased dramatically due to shortages caused by supply chain issues, leading to a large increase in end pricing of food packaging products. These price increases continued through most of 2022 – with aluminum and glass packaging seeing price growth even into 2023.

Going into 2024, average prices for meat, poultry, and seafood packaging products are expected to increase 1.7% per year through 2028. Factors supporting price increases include:

• rising raw material costs for paperboard, plastic resins, films, and adhesives, due in part to higher energy prices that impact transportation and other operational costs

• the increasing importance of higher value, innovative designs, such as superior graphics and display-ready designs for corrugated boxes, and higher barrier capabilities for plastic packaging

• industry consolidation that will enable suppliers to implement price hikes

• tariffs on packaging – such as certain flexible plastic packaging items – as well as raw materials – such as chemical resins – sourced from China