Stora Enso Presents Latest Trends for Fresh Produce Packaging

The latest Viewpoint from Stora Enso has identified insights for brand owners and retailers within the fruit and vegetables category. The packaging trend report confirms that sustainable fibre-based packaging can increase profit margin and reduce food waste.

When asked which social challenges are the most important to solve, Millennials say the escalating food waste in the world is a top concern. The report notes that as much as 45 percent of all fruit and vegetables produced in the world goes to waste. The fresh produce category has the highest level of waste in the grocery retail.

"One of the key success factors to reduce food waste is to develop packaging that prolongs shelf life of the products," says Björn Thunström, SVP marketing and innovation, division packaging solutions, Stora Enso.

The Viewpoint presents research from the University of Bologna showing that renewable fibre-based packaging can prolong the shelf life with up to three days, compared to returnable plastic crates.

Healthy and Sustainable Lifestyle

To have a healthy and sustainable lifestyle is a rapidly expanding desire and something that is highly valued among today's consumers. The products in the fruit and vegetables category fit well in this lifestyle. A growing trend is consumers’ desire for significantly more premium products with high quality in the fruit and vegetables category. Therefore, it becomes much more important that fruits and vegetables are fresh, attractive and tasteful.

"We will see an increased use of packaging in the fruit and vegetables category when premium becomes more important than to sell large volumes, says Björn Thunström. “Packaging will play an increasingly important part in achieving premiumisation."

Innovative and Climate Smart Packaging

At Stora Enso's DesignStudios, brand owners and retailers can gain top-level support to find the most optimal fibre-based packaging solutions for their products.

"Our aim with this Viewpoint is to increase the brand owners’ and retailers’ awareness on the importance of focusing on innovative and climate smart packaging for fruit and vegetables,” says Björn Thunström. “This will lead to that they can increase their profit margin, as well as contributing to reduce food waste in the world.”