North America PET Food Packaging Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The North America PET Food Packaging Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.47% during the forecast period 2021 - 2026. North America is one of the fastest-growing pet food packaging markets. The presence of large packaging companies, such as Amcor Ltd and Mondi PLC, drive investments for innovation and research and development activities in the region. Major trends for packaging on the consumption end incline toward the demographics and demand for convenience packaging

Key Highlights

• The increasing pet humanization and pet ownership, the emergence of private-label store brands, and growing urbanization are some of the major driving forces propelling the growth of the North American pet food market. Further, the increase in the number of non-traditional households with no children, coupled with high levels of disposable income, is boosting the per-capita pet expenditure for this market.
• According to the Flexible Packaging Association, the United States accounts for USD 135 billion in the world’s entire packaging industry. Pet food, in particular, adopted flexible packaging in large numbers, due to convenience factors, such as innovative slider closures, pouch packaging, and fitments for pet food. As quoted by the American Pet Products Association, the sales of pet products through online channels witnessed a 57% growth during 2018-2019 in the United States
• Further, with the radical expansion of pet industry, especially pertaining to the largest retail chains, such as e-commerce, supermarkets, and specialized pet shops, have drastically impacted the pet food sales captured through these other distribution channels. The ease of availability of pet treats through small convenience stores is radically favoring the market expansion, despite a very nominal share of these convenience stores in the pet food sales.
• For instance, according to American Pet Products Association (APPA), the sale of pet foods and treats in the US market is around USD 36.90 billion in 2019, and it is estimated to increase to USD 38.40 billion in 2020. The growth of pet treats in 2020 is around 4.1% when compared to 2019.​
• Additionally, owing to impact of COVID-19, US small business association has come up with SBA Disaster Assistance to reduce the inflexibilities across the supply chain. The Disaster Loans offer up to USD 2 million in assistance and provide vital economic support to small businesses, to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue. The long-term repayments include up to a maximum of 30 years. Also with the pet food production been categorized as an essential in North America, it is expected to foster the growth of the market despite the uncertainties in the supply chain going forward.

Key Market Trends

Plastic Packaging is expected to Hold Major Market Share

• Plastic packaging is prominently used for the pet food packaging, from airtight wraps to shelf-stable bottles and containers. In this industry, plastics have also driven innovations in packaging design. For instance, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) helps preserve pet food freshness by capturing a reduced-oxygen air mixture in a plastic package. These advanced and intelligence packaging techniques play a critical role in ensuring not to compromise the integrity of the product while increasing its shelf life drastically.​
• In the United States, pet food expenditure is increasing because of the widespread demand for pet ownership. Advances in technology are making boarding, grooming, and training facilities more easily accessible to the owners. The United States is a pioneer in this market with increasing expenditures, thereby driving the plastics pet food packaging market in the country.
• Moreover, the region is also expected to see a rise in plastic packaging used for the pet foods, primarily owing to the recent lockdown that has increased the need for more long-term food storage solutions. With the lockdown, there has been a considerable rise in the food delivery and takeaway services, which is expected to drive the market.​
• However, according to Pet Sustainability Coalition (PSC), an estimated 300 million lbs. of plastic waste comes from pet food and treat packaging per year in the United States. Additionally, many of those packages are made from unrecyclable or hard-to-recycle materials, making the cost of recycling more than the value of those materials. PSC also projects at least 99% of all pet food packaging in the US is thrown away instead of being recycled. To tackle this issue, Flex Forward launched a pilot program to inform consumers, retailers, manufacturers, and packaging suppliers about the importance of reducing the overall environmental impacts of plastic packaging in the pet industry and fuel sustainable solutions for the future.

Flexible Packaging Solutions To Drive the Market Growth

• The food packaging solutions such as flexible packaging have been experiencing a positive demand across the end-user industry sectors, such as pet food, retail, consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals, in the country owing to cost-effectiveness and increased shelf-life of the product, downsizing of packaging, rising demand from end-users, and improvements in global manufacturing activities.
• The demand has been catalyzed by the continued rise in the levels of urbanization, a large expatriate population, changing dietary habits, and increasing penetration of e-commerce. Thus, the processed and packaged food market in the region is currently exhibiting strong growth.
• Consequently, pet owners are willing to pay for more value-added products and resulting in a decline of economy pet food, with people moving toward branded product offerings. According to the National Pet Owners Survey, conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA), 68% of the US households (about 85 million families) own a pet. For instance, The use of rigid packaging, such as metal cans for pet food, declined in the recent past.

Competitive Landscape

The North America PET Food Packaging Market is moderately consolidated owing to the presence of prominent vendors including Amcor PLC, America Packaging Corporation, ProAmpac LLC, and Berry Global Inc among others. The vendors in the market are leveraging their research and development activities toward convenient and innovative packaging solutions, to generate genuine consumer interest among the end-users.​

• February 2020: Amcor PLC in the multivitamin category showcased the development and launch of the PET container that is made from 100% post-consumer recycled content (PCR) resin. The company created the new clear bottle in two sizes-100 cubic centimeters and 150 cubic centimeters-for Ritual, a health meets technology company that reimagined the multivitamin.

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