Freedonia, the Cleveland, Ohio, based market research firm, conducted teh study and found that food and beverages were the two largest markets for active and intelligent packaging in 2012.
It predicts a surge in innovation in the pharmaceuticals sector – which will be the fastest growing active and intelligent packaging market through 2017.
Active packaging provides functions such as moisture control, while intelligent packaging incorporates features that indicate status or communicate product changes and other information.
Esther Palevsky, Freedonia analyst, told Packaging News: “The current state of the market encompasses a number of established product types e.g., oxygen scavengers, dessicants, susceptors. In addition, some products that were viewed as niches in packaging until recently e.g. thermochromic inks, QR codes, have also achieved a mainstream presence. With smartphones now fairly common among consumers, the market is at a point of packaged goods firms wanting to use smartphone-enabled technologies on packaging to differentiate themselves in a crowded retail market.”
She added that intelligent packaging demand will record double-digit annual gains, reaching $1.3bn (£790m) in 2017.
The study found that in addition to growing product protection and food safety requirements, increases will be propelled by rapid advances for newer and emerging technologies such as quick response and other mobile marketing codes and printed electronics on packaging.
Additionally, the report forecast a 5.7% annual increase in demand for active packaging, $2.2bn (£1.3bn) in 2017.
Gas scavenger demand will climb at a faster pace as a result of expanded applications for oxygen scavengers in food, beverage, and pharmaceutical packaging, it said.
