The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic hasn’t just shaken the produce industry; it has forced packaging manufacturers as well as grower-shippers to change course — in some cases, dramatically.
Until COVID-19, there was a very strong push to minimize packaging and move away from single-use materials to reusable or compostable and sustainable products, said Jeff Brandenburg, president and primary consultant for the Greenfield, Mass.-based JSB Group LLC and QFresh Lab in Salinas, Calif.
“To a certain extent, that’s been put on hold in the light of COVID and wanting to make sure things are clean and not contaminated; they’re willing to go back to single-use.”
Brandenburg pointed out that grocery stores, which had moved away from the traditional paper “barrel” bags to reusable bags, have reversed course in the wake of the pandemic.
“Now, many of those same stores have banned reusable bags for fear of COVID or cross-contamination, and the grocery sacks are back,” he said.
COVID-19 has forced restaurants and other foodservice outlets to close — or, at least, dramatically alter their business models — and that has also affected packaging, Brandenburg said.
“As restaurants open up for takeout, they’ve got to package in a takeout format, as opposed to a salad bar format,” he said, citing one example.
“This impacts not only packaging but packaging equipment. So, if you have equipment used to handling 5 or 10 pounds of something for an institutional salad bar, and now you’re putting things in a smaller package for takeout, that could require different equipment. So, COVID has a huge impact on (the) fresh food and food packaging industry.”
Shopping habits have changed in the pandemic, with consumers making fewer trips to the store, and that has affected packaging as well, Brandenburg said.
“If the pendulum was in one direction, with convenience and ease, now it’s swung to the other end where you try not to go to the store for two weeks at a time, and I think it’s going to go some but not all the way back to where it was before,” he said.
Sustainability was a strong trend in packaging before COVID-19. Then things changed, Brandenburg said.
Now it’s coming back.
“People are still concerned about the environment. Those conversations that had a hard stop in March are coming back,” he said
Changing needs
Business models, particularly in restaurants, have changed, and they may take some time to fully revert to their original form — if they ever do, Brandenburg said.
“Restaurants are going to be open for indoor and outdoor dining for quite a while before salad bars or buffets come back,” he said.
“I’d love to be proven wrong. And, are we going to see a second spike? When will a vaccine coming out? All this is going to impact the conversations we’re having. At the end of the day, the produce industry are going to be putting healthy foods out for people to consume and packaging will continue to play a role in that. The packaging industry will continue to evolve to meet those needs in size, sustainability and materials.”
Nobody knows what kind of permanent changes the coronavirus outbreak will leave, said Steve Lutz, senior vice president of insights and innovation with Idaho Falls, Idaho-based Category Partners LLC.
“All we know is that consumers are telling us in surveys that they have heightened concerns about food safety,” he said.
“What they say is they’re seeking out more consumer packaged produce over bulk. It’s just a different trend than what we saw before, fueled more by, call it an ‘avoidance’ of plastic. In some ways, it’s counter to the earlier trend, because people were looking for packaged and there wasn’t any discerning type. Any package fills that needs.”
COVID-19’s economic legacy also will be a factor, Lutz said.
“The other piece you have to overlay with that is, we saw the same thing in the Great Recession, which is as people are stressed economically, they change their value focus as consumers seek packaging out as a money-saver and stretch their dollar,” he said.
“You combine food safety or health concerns with the economic aspects and you can see why you’re getting that economic lift in that direction.”
Consumers making fewer trips to the store has created a demand for “stock-up” sizes in packaging, but that trend seems to have peaked, Lutz said.
“The evidence suggests it’s declining,” he said.
“There is some trip compression that is an economic factor, but not COVID. They’re trying to minimizing driving around, saying, ‘I just can’t afford to drive around to all these stores, so I’m just going to make fewer trips. But, you don’t see the kind of pantry loading you saw in March.”
Disruptions
The pandemic has created dramatic changes in global supply channels for all categories of consumables, heightened the consumer concerns for hygiene and safety, relaxed the bans on single-use plastics and disrupted numerous end markets through the demand for stay-at-home shopping, said Jay Singh, professor and packaging program director with the Orfalea College of Business at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
“The desperation-based hoarding at the onset of the pandemic disrupted several categories of consumables — durable and non-durables — seems to have subsided but may return based on how the next phases of COVID-19 emerge,” he said.
Consumers also have rapidly explored, adopted and/or increased their e-commerce channels-based purchasing, Singh said.
“So, while the warehouse club stores will continue to offer large wholesale quantities of various products, the e-commerce channels will continue to meet the demands for the regular packaged products,” he said.
Some industry forecasts are predicting U.S. online grocery sales will reach 10% this year compared to 2-3% before the pandemic, Singh said.
Packaging manufacturers are focusing heavily on food safety, said Cindy Blish, brand and communications manager with Shelton, Conn.-based Inline Plastics Corp.
“Given the consumers’ concern regarding food safety, the need for secure, tamper-evident packaging has become vital for many retailers, as well as restaurants,” Blish said.
“This preferred type of food packaging helps alleviate some of the concerns for both in-store purchases, as well as in response to the growing trends of food delivery.”
In addition, many items sold at retail in bulk in the past now need packaging — in salad bars, olive bars and self-service nuts, for example, Blish said.
“Restaurants that have in the past derived the majority of their income from in-house dining now are providing the majority of their products for take-out and delivery, further requiring packaging options which protect the integrity of the food,” she said.
“The growth we are seeing impacts all sizes, with perhaps less of a focus on large party platters, which have been historically used more in settings where larger gatherings were present.”
McAllen, Texas-based Fox Packaging is seeing an increase in orders from customers looking for 3- to 10-pound applications, said Victoria Lopez, marketing representative.
“As concerns for health and food safety continue in households, we believe that this trend will continue for the coming months,” she said.
Union Gap, Wash.-based closure manufacturer Kwik Lok Corp is seeing increased demand, as consumers do more cooking at home, said Karen Reed, marketing and communications director.
“Produce and bakery items continue to be in demand,” she said. “Consumers want to be able to ‘grab and go’ from the grocery store, knowing that the items they choose are safe and fresh.”
Sustainability still desired
Sustainability also remains a factor among customers, Reed said.
“We also continue to see interest in sustainable packaging options like our Eco-Lok along with rising interest in solutions that provide for food safety such as our 909 tamper-evident laser-stitch machine,” she said.
In previous economic downturns, sustainability from an environmental perspective has taken a back seat, but not this time, said Dave DeMots, CEO of Canby, Ore.-based Package Containers Inc.
“This time around, there appears to be a connection between COVID and the environment to where the focus on continued sustainability improvements must be made,” he said.
“The demand for recycled, recyclable and compostable products continues to grow because of the pandemic.”
Consumers aren’t necessarily asking more often for bigger-sized packages, DeMots said.
“More than size-up sizes, we are seeing a demand for grab and go,” he said. “Consumers are asking for sustainable convenience.”
Collinsville, Ill.-based packaging manufacturer Sev-Rend Corp. has seen a surge in the need for consumer packaging in the 2- to 5-pound range, said Jeff Watkin, graphic and marketing manager.
“We anticipate this to be the new normal for the foreseeable future, as the consumer’s shopping and spending habits evolve due to the pandemic,” he said.
Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific has noted a “heightened concern” for food safety during the pandemic, said Julie Davis, director of public affairs.
“As a result, this has caused a shift from loose/bulk produce to packaged produce,” she said.
“During COVID-19, retailers have also shifted to offering consumers more pre-packaged produce versus loose produce due to heightened hygiene concerns.”
Grower-shippers such as Wenatchee, Wash.-based Stemilt Growers LLC are responding to changes in the marketplace, too, said Brianna Shales, senior marketing manager.
“We’re introducing a new paper tote bag this fall to help retailers move more bulk apples and pears,” she said.
“It’s a package that sells random-weight by cashiers ringing up the PLU code, but the fruit will come pre-packaged and in a display-ready carton so that touches by produce clerks or shoppers are limited.”
The package also has sustainable aspects, Shales said.
“It’s paper, so 100% recyclable, and will feature the How2Recycle program label to help consumers recycle the package easily,” she said. “I think there will be opportunities for all pack types throughout the season.”
Consumers continue to seek pre-packaged items amid the pandemic, said Chris Veillon, chief marketing officer with Leamington, Ontario-based greenhouse vegetable grower-shipper Pure Hothouse Foods Inc.
There’s increased interest in resealable items, such as snacking tomatoes and mini sweet peppers, Veillon said.
“Consumers seem to want people to touch their products less and less, which means there is a greater demand for packaged products,” he said.
The less “direct handling,” the better, said Alex Buck, president of the Newcomerstown, Ohio-based Fruit Growers Marketing Association.
“Based on what we are currently experiencing, I think we will see an increase in bagged fruit over bulk,” he said.
“More apple varieties we are used to seeing on shelves loose will start going into bags or pouches.”
Related Content:
New ‘breathable’ bags protect Basciani Foods mushrooms
