Packaging industry seen growing 3.2% per year

THE Philippine processing and packaging industry is expected to grow 3.2% a year, according to Informa Markets.

“The overview of the processing and packaging industry in the Philippines is very interesting, with annual growth of around 3.2%,” Rungphech Chitanuwat, general manager for the Philippines at Informa Markets, said at the opening ceremony of ProPak Philippines 2026 on Wednesday.

“The volume of packaging in the Philippines was 78.5 billion units in 2024, but you guys will reach 91.8 billion in 2029,” she added. 

She said that the outlook reflects “increasing consumption and innovation and development,” she added.

However, she said that consumers today are more conscious about the sustainability of the materials they consume, which makes it important for the industry to take a sustainability approach.

“The convergence of consumer consciousness and technological advancement is creating new market segments and business models that position the Philippines as a regional hub for sustainable packaging solutions,” she said.

“Companies that embrace consumer-conscious innovation today will lead tomorrow’s markets, capturing both domestic opportunities and export potential in an increasingly sustainability-focused global economy,” she added.

Science and Technology Secretary Renato U. Solidum, Jr. said that sustainability requires the participation of everyone.

He said the department hopes to help businesses become more efficient, compliant, and competitive through better technology and smarter processes.

“We will engage micro, small, and medium enterprises one-on-one to help them improve their production and increase the skills of their employees through capacity building,” he added.

In the medium term, the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) will be investing in innovation systems and supporting research and development, digitalization, and business model innovation.

“Here, we target 500 tech enterprises to be scaled globally,” he said.

The DoST will also be introducing the Philippine Technology Evaluation and Standards Testing Facility.

“We will implement this with the Commission on Higher Education, where technologies can be tested all over the Philippines so that we can make innovations more market-ready so that investors can see the potential of which technologies they can invest in,” he added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile