Wooden packaging (final balance 2022)

Pallets, industrial packages, boxes and corks: the wooden packaging family is composed of these different types. The final 2022 data of the segment and the first analyses of the year just ended are presented below

A cura di Barbara Iascone
Istituto Italiano Imballaggio

Wooden packaging has guaranteed the protection of goods during transport and handling since ancient times: thanks to its resistance and excellent ability to absorb knocks and vibrations, it’s able to reduce any damage to transported products and relative losses to a minimum.

Today they are considered undisputed interpreters of the concept of sustainability: made with a recyclable and biodegradable material, their “ecological” nature is now universally recognized. We can even say that, today, nearly all wooden packages are produced either with recycled materials or with materials coming from responsibly managed forests, in this way significantly reducing waste and environmental impact. According to the Italian Packaging Institute’s Data Bank, 84% of reusable packaging in Italy is packaging for transport, of which 65% is made of wood.

Photograph of a sector

On the basis of the final data taken from the “Packaging in Figures” 2023 edition, in 2022 the wooden packaging industry accounted for 17.5% of total Italian packaging production expressed in tonnes, and 3.9% of overall turnover.

On the basis of the breakdown reported in “Packaging in Figures”, the economic statistical compendium that the Italian Packaging Institute draws up every year, the segment is divided into pallets, industrial packaging, boxes, and corks.

The first account for 77.9% of the segment, while industrial packaging 14.6%. These two categories, which together represent 92.5% of total wooden packaging production, are used exclusively in the fields of transport and logistics, making them particularly sensitive, more than other packaging types, to the trend of the manufacturing industry as a whole.

Facts and data

(Source: Italian Packaging Institute’s analyses of ISTAT [Italian National Statistics Institute] data) In this analysis we start from the final data reported in the latest edition of “Packaging in Figures” referring to 2022, providing also a first evaluation of 2023. It’s necessary to point out that no official data is available yet for 2023, and the evaluations reported are based on initial ISTAT analyses referring to the first 10 months of the year, both with regards to production and to foreign trade.

Starting, therefore, from the final data, in 2022 the production of wooden packaging was substantially stable at +0.4%, with around 3,168 t/000. Turnover was up, by around +2.8%, as was foreign trade: +6.3% for exports, +2.9% for imports.

The first evaluations relating to 2023 show production falling by around -5%, with 3,000 t/000. This trend should be also confirmed by a number of economic indicators: the negative trend reported by manufacturing industry (-0.6%), the generalised fall in exports, and a decrease in goods handling which, inevitably, affects this type of packaging strongly linked to the world of transportation.

Pallets. Pallets continue to be the most representative item of the segment (77.9%): in 2023 they should register a fall of 4.5%, inverting the generally positive trend characterizing recent years. In 2022 production closed at +2.1%.

On the basis of the Italian Packaging Institute’s Data Bank, 46.4% of the pallet sector relates to the food sector, subdivided into drinks for 22.2% and food for 24.2%. 24,4% is used for the non-food mass retail area (cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, domestic cleaning products etc.), and the remaining 29.2% is used for the non-food area in general, of which 2.8% in the chemical sector.

Industrial packaging. This category refers to crates, mostly tailor-made, large reels for electric cables, wine crates, large boxes, etc. In 2023 the production of wooden industrial packaging is expected to fall by around -7.5%, bringing the number of tonnes to below 430,000. There was also a negative trend in 2022 (- 5.1%).

Boxes. Used in the fruit and vegetable, fish and nursery sectors, wooden boxes have undergone a slow but constant decline for a number of years, replaced by containers made with other materials; corrugated cardboard is taking over in fruit and vegetables, while in the fish sector there is almost the exclusive use of plastic and polystyrene. After the fall in production reported in 2022 (-8%), a -10% is expected for 2023.

Corks. They are a niche area of the of wooden packaging “family” (2.2%), but nevertheless of great importance, given that Italy is one of the major producers of cork. In 2022 there was a growth of around 6.5% in terms of production, arriving at exceeding 70,000 tonnes. The trend for 2023 sees instead, a fall of 5%, due essentially to the downsizing of the main target sectors. Foreign trade was also characterised by negative trends in 2023, both regarding imports and exports.