China's Packaging Industry Luring Indian Companies

Indian Pharma Industry Keen On Innovative Packaging

CHINA'S packaging industry is a key market for India to access quality good at lower costs. Novel concepts and cost efficiency are driving many of the Indian companies to the Dragon Land.

At the Interphex China 2012 concurrently held with API Spring and PharmChina events at Hefei, there was a dedicated zone for global pharma packaging majors from the Republic of China. There was a beeline of customers from Indian pharma companies to look at the new products.

There was also a huge demand for single dose easy to use, tamper proof and environment friendly packaging solutions. These are some of the emerging trends for the pharma, personal care, dietary supplements and nutraceuticals, said an official from Yili Capsule.

Companies in China are also working to ensure that the latest technology is adopted as this would have a tremendous impact in the tapping customers, said a section of officials from the packaging and printing industry.

India, being a major exporter to the regulated markets, needs high quality packaging.

Though China's pharmaceutical packaging machinery, has experienced rapid development in recent years, it needs further improvement. From the point of view of developed countries, there is still a considerable gap in areas such as innovation capability, low degree of integration of production, the rapid development of industry from the pharmaceutical industry production.

With the stringent norms for national drug GMP certification, GMP requirements on pharmaceutical packaging, equipment is now being more strictly regulated. In order to meet the GMP production process requirements, the use of the material has been greatly improved. In addition, because the development of electronic information technology, intelligent production efforts are needed.

In order to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical market, the packaging machinery in China has to strengthen research and development and also innovative designs. It is essential to have innovative ideas in research and development of new products, to train multi-disciplinary talents, and also to have close contact with manufacturers, opines an industry expert.

China is the second-largest packaging market in the world. Fuelled by the rapid growth in domestic consumption and consistent growth in GDP, the Chinese packaging industry has grown steadily and achieved rapid growth in its key categories. China has replaced japan in terms of market size and is expected to surpass the US by 2020. The Chinese packaging industry's key end-user markets, including pharmaceuticals, retail and food and beverages, are poised for impressive growth in the forecast period.

At the same time India has become the sixth-largest packaging market in the world, with sales of US$24.6 billion in 2011. India is one of the fastest-growing packaging markets in the world's fourth - largest packaging market by 2016 with revenues of US$43.7 billion in 2016. Food safety laws in India are still in their development stage, and will require further amendment to meet the rapidly-changing needs of the packaging industry.

Flexible plastic packaging is the fastest growing packaging category in India. The packaging industry benefited from strong growth in the Indian retail market. Other end-user markets from packaging, including pharmaceutical and processed food, have been growing rapidly, both domestically and internationally. This demand from end-user markets is expected to remain high. India's retail growth and increased consumption of consumer products is driving the demand for packaging in the country.

India's per capita annual packaging expenditure was US$20 in 2011, which is significantly lower than the top 20 market average of US$347.6. The low per capita expenditure offers a huge business opportunity for packaging companies. Despite the Indian packaging industry undergoing some consolidation, it is still fragmented, especially following the introduction of new companies in the country.

In general, the pharma industry in India has always been on the lookout for innovative packaging in terms of convenience, customer friendliness and more importantly hygiene and compatibility with the products. in view of these aspects, there have been enormous developments in packaging especially to restrict counterfeiting.

(Ref : June 7, 2012, The Chronical Pharmabiz)