The growth in the number of seafood consumers, food service industry, logistics sector, and the technological advancements in packaging are driving the growth of global frozen seafood packaging.
There is a trend of steam pack packaging, whereby the frozen seafood is steam cooked in the microwave with lesser time and healthy cooking methods, preserving its natural colors, vitamins, and minerals. Steam pack frozen seafood is expected to take over the market share over the forecast period. For instance, Mondi Group, a prominent packaging vendor, has a product called steam pack in its portfolio. Ziplock packaging also has huge demand from the consumers majorly for processed seafood which can be stored for further use.
Seafood is prone to microbial growth and it requires effective antimicrobial packaging to increase its shelf life. Inadequate packaging of frozen seafood has accounted for a loss of around 5 million tons of seafood every year and nearly 4-5 million tons of fish are lost annually due to improper storage onsite.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fish production is set to grow by around 18% in the next 10 years. As seafood production is set for the inevitable growth in the coming years, stakeholders in the seafood packaging market are continually finding new ways to preserve the freshness of fresh products and minimize exposure to external factors that hinder the same.
There is no evidence that people have developed COVID-19 illness from touching food or food packaging. However, the virus causing COVID-19 can survive on surfaces and objects for a limited amount of time.
The available evidence suggests this up to about 3 days on hard surfaces like metal or plastic and about 1 day on soft surfaces like cardboard. This is unlike some other viruses that can persist on food or other surfaces for long periods. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends four steps for safely dealing with food: Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill.
Frozen food is a better option than fresh food at the time of COVID 19 pandemic as frozen food is not continuously touched by the people and frozen food can stay longer than the fresh food available in the market. These factors lead to a sudden increase in demand for frozen food in the market at the time of the pandemic.
The more risk of contracting viruses when shopping is from touching a shopping cart, or basket. As noted, coronaviruses can remain on hard surfaces such as steel and plastic (e.g., car door handles, building door handles, shopping cart/basket handles, elevator buttons) for up to 3 days so these are the highest risk surfaces to touch.
Global Frozen Seafood Packaging Market Landscape
The global frozen seafood packaging market size is projected to reach USD 280 billion by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 6.18% over the forecast period. Food packaging accounted for 38.7% market share in 2016 of the total packaging industries, and frozen food accounted for 5.0% in 2017 of the total food packaging industry.
Flexible packaging accounted for the largest market share of 56.1% in 2017, backed by factors like convenience to consumers and eco-friendly, which has a negligible harmful impact on the content and to the environment and also has a low cost of shipping as compared to rigid packaging.
Based on geography, Europe accounted for the largest market share of 27.8% in 2016, for being the major exporter of frozen seafood majorly from Russia, Norway Netherlands, and Spain. Russia alone exported USD 2.0 billion valued frozen seafood in 2016.
Comments
Log in or sign up to join the conversation.