It can be said that the packaging sector has contributed significantly to Vietnam’s regional and global integration and enhanced export to other countries around the world.

Packaging not only preserves products, decreases decay, improves food safety and facilitates packing and shipping but is also a means to market products on the market and introduce Vietnam and its people.

It can be said that the packaging sector has contributed significantly to Vietnam’s regional and global integration and enhanced export to other countries around the world

Packaging has become necessary and increasingly common among us. Packaging costs have also risen out of consumers’ total goods values.

In a number of cases, these costs amount up to 30% or even more of products’ total payment, but consumers are willing to pay. With technological strides in today’s world, packaging materials have become diverse, ranging from metals, glass, paper and wood. However, with rising actual demands and scarcity of conventional materials, plastic packaging has grown and reached an important position in the Packaging sector. The plastic packaging sector can be divided into three main categories:

Single-layer and multi-layer soft packaging

Empty packaging

Woven packaging and other kinds of packaging

Soft packaging: is single-layer, double-layer and multi-layer packaging coupled with other kinds of materials. It is usually used for food, produce, processed seafood, cosmetics and medicine. There are currently 23 businesses producing and doing half-finished soft packaging products with around 5,000 workers in our country. The soft packaging production capacity is above 1 billion meters each year, and this capacity caters to most of domestic and export demands. The soft packaging market is a promising, highly potential market in Vietnam. The growth rate in the past several years is recorded from 25 to 30 % each year. To achieve such accomplishments, the soft packaging sector has ceaselessly renovate their equipment and technology. The Sector’s investment value has been estimated at approximately over US$40 million in the past five years. Many companies have invested equipment and complete advanced technology from G7 countries. Therefore the Sector has basically satisfied domestic demand, turned foreign products away and saved the country hundreds of millions of US dollars. Typical examples are the Sector’s spearleaders such as Tan Tien Plastic Packaging Co. and LikSin Co. These companies have also pioneered in investing in a complete printer shaft assembly line adopting modern technology and turning out products which can rival those from West European countries with prices 10-30% lower. The packaging printer shaft capacity has met domestic demand.

Empty packaging: In the early 1990s of the 20th century, the empty Packaging sector in our country remained backward in both equipment and technology compared to regional countries. We still imported 100% of PET bottles in all kinds in 1994. From 1996 to 2000, the Empty packaging sector such as plastic bottles and jars made remarkable strides, with its average growth rate per year reaching 30%. The high growth rate is attributed to hiking social demand in the past several years. Plastic containers have been replacing those made from glass and metal thanks to their superiority regarding prices, quality, shipping and diversity. According to statistics by the Vietnam Plastic Assocation, the country had more than 100 businesses producing plastic bottles of different kinds in 2002, consuming around over 100,000 tons of plastic such as PET, PP, PE each year. Some units such as Ngoc Nghia Co. Ltd advanced into TOP 3 of Largest PET bottle producers in Southeast Asia, with its capacity reaching 520 million products. In 2003, a variety of PET bottles surfaced in 2003, including PET bottles which can withstand high temperatures (59oC and above). In the next 10 years, the trend of PET use will continue to rise from 20 to 25% each year, which will cater to household and export demands of such products as mineral water, cooking oil, sparkling beverages and fruit juice.

Other kinds of packaging: Packaging woven from PP and PE fibers has also seen remarkable strides and catered well to the export of produce, rice, coffee, sugar, and chemicals, fertilizers and cement. According to current estimates, Vietnamese businesses are now capable of turning out more than 1 billion packaging items per year for domestic and export demands. Apart from the above-mentioned plastic packaging, packaging in the form of sheets, packaging with their shapes fixed by the vacuum-technology and packaging in the form of containers such as water tanks, and crates are also thriving and increasingly common in society.

However, apart from the above accomplishments, the Vietnamese Plastic Packaging sector has also encounted a number of difficulties:

1. The sector imports 90-95 percent of its materials, particularly BOPP, OPP, PA, PET semi-finished products, which has left packaging producers invariably passive. The current demand for BOPP filming is huge, over 20,000 tons per year, but no facility has been built and come into operation, though competent agencies have approved many projects.

2. Environmental protection and food hygienic safety is a major requirement for the Packaging Sector. The world is now going in two directions: developing the waste material recycling sector robustly and the new material sector which can invent self-decomposing materials in certain environments to cut down on pollution. The State should launch direct or indirect policies to assist research and production units in searching for coping measures.

3. As for human resource development, Vietnam currently has yet to launch a training facility in the Packaging sector in particular and the plastic processing sector in general.

Thu Tra