Wood packaging (2022)

History tells us that it was the Phoenicians who made the first wooden packaging for transporting particularly precious goods. Below we provide information on the different types in use today, and on the 2022 market trend and its sectors of use.

Barbara Iascone

Undisputed interpreters of the concept of sustainability, wooden packaging has always guaranteed the safety of goods during transport and logistics handling: thanks to their resistance and excellent ability to absorb knocks and vibrations, they reduce any damage and relative losses to a minimum. Their ecological aspect should not be overlooked, a value recognised at international level, being made with a recyclable and biodegradable material. The woods used to produce packaging can be of various types and qualities; the most common include pine, beech, larch and birch, but can also be recycled materials or materials coming from forests managed in a sustainable manner, thereby significantly reducing waste and environmental impact.

Photograph of a sector

Types

The wooden packaging sector represents around 17.5% of the total of Italian packaging production expressed in tonnes, which falls to 4.5% with regards to turnover. On the basis of the breakdown reported in Imballaggio in Cifre – the economic statistical compendium which the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio (Italian Packaging Institute) draws up every year – the segment is subdivided as follows:

• pallets;
• industrial packaging;
• wooden crates;
• corks.

The first represent 77% of the sector, while industrial packaging represents 15%. These two categories, which together account for 92% of wooden packaging production, are used exclusively in the world of transport and logistics, and for this reason, more than for other types of packaging are particularly sensitive to the manufacturing industry trend. In the 2020-2021 two-year period, wooden packaging maintained good market position, recording generally positive trends. This was, moreover, despite the difficulties generated by the increase in the prices of raw materials - which more than doubled in 2022 compared to 2019 - due to the pandemic and geopolitical tensions.

Market data

Source: analyses of the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio using ISTAT data

The latest edition of Imballaggio in Cifre reported a correction regarding the data for the year 2020; in fact, contrary to what had been previously reported, the year had closed with a production growth of over 4%, in which pallets jumped by 5%. This growth stabilised in 2021, with tonnes of wooden packaging exceeded 3,180 t/000 with a growth trend of +11%. The values for 2022 are based on the very early indicators analysed by ISTAT (the Italian national statistical institute), so we are talking about preliminary data. On the basis of the analyses, the year should close with a production growth of 2.5%, bringing the tonnes of wooden packaging to over 3,300 t/000. Foreign trade in 2022 was also characterised by dynamism, growing both in imports, +2%, and exports, +10%. Turnover also grew by 2%.

• Production is represented, as always, mostly by pallets (71.5%): this type of packaging, in 2022, should close with a growth of 2.7%, confirming the positive trend characterizing the last few years. We should not forget that, also in the 2020-2021 two-year period, in the face of huge uncertainties, they managed to maintain a good performance. On the basis of the analyses of the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio’s Data Bank, the pallet sector operates for 46.9% in the food sector, 21.6% relating to beverages and liquid foods, and 25.3% to food. 23.1% is intended for non-food consumer products (cosmetics, pharmaceutical, domestic cleaning products, etc.), while the remaining 30% is intended for the non-food area in general, of which 3.9% for the chemicals sector. In the context of wooden packages, there is also industrial packaging, composed of crates, for the most part made-to-measure, large reels for electric cables, wine cases, large-size crates, etc. In 2022 this type of packaging should reach around 493,000 tonnes, up +1% compared to the previous year.

• The crates are used in the fruit and vegetable, fish and nursery sectors. In the last few years, this packaging has suffered a slow but constant decline, given the replacement with crates made with other materials: the use of corrugated cardboard has been constantly increasing for fruit and vegetables, while the fish sector is moving towards the almost exclusive use of plastic and polystyrene crates. In 2022 the sector should close with -1%.

• Corks also come under wooden packaging; it’s a niche sector, representing just 2.2% of the sector, but of great importance given that Italy is one of the leading producers of cork. In 2022 the area recorded a growth of around 17% in production terms, reaching around 80.000 tonnes. They are essentially used in the wine and sparkling wine sector, albeit increasingly often being replaced by synthetic corks made of plastic agglomerates.