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Smart Packaging: ‘A Tale of Two Technologies’

A presentation at SmartPack 2019 delves into the current status, forecast, and drivers of the two categories of technology—smart and active—that make up smart packaging.

Duane Niedert, Director of Operations – Americas for Smithers
Duane Niedert, Director of Operations – Americas for Smithers

The smart packaging market is “a tale of two technologies”: active and intelligent. That’s according to Duane Niedert, Director of Operations – Americas for Smithers, who provided an overview of the market, including its current status, future forecast, and drivers, at Smithers’ inaugural SmartPack conference, Sept. 11-12 in San Diego.

“Active packaging comprises more established, mature markets consisting of older technologies that have been in use for quite a while,” explained Niedert. “Intelligent packaging, although much smaller right now, is really where the growth is, and it’s being enabled by bringing down the cost of those technologies that really enable it.

“Everyone across the value chain is investing in some way in this—if not investing in the development of solutions, then investing in their people’s time to stay abreast of what’s going on and to assess the opportunities that exist there.”

Niedert’s presentation, based on a recent report from Smithers ,“The Future of Active & Intelligent Packaging to 2023,” showed that the smart packaging market is forecast to grow at roughly 6% over the next five years, a slight increase over the 4.7% rate experienced over the past five years. While growing faster than the packaging industry at large, “it is still a very small part of the market,” Niedert said. “It makes up between a half and one percent of global packaging today.”

Of the roughly $7.56 billion in sales predicted for 2023, Niedert said intelligent packaging will grow at a CAGR of 12.9% from 2018 to 2023, while active packaging will grow at 4%. “Intelligent packaging is at an early development stage,” he explained. “It’s embryonic, but growing quickly and is potentially a high-growth market with developments around printed electronics, the cloud, and the Internet of Things driving adoption of these technologies.”

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