Pharma, cosmetics expected to drive growth of region’s packaging industry

By Vonn Andrei E. Villamiel, Reporter

BANGKOK — Rising demand for innovative pharmaceutical and cosmetics packaging solutions is expected to drive growth in Southeast Asia’s packaging industry, according to Informa Markets.

Sanchai Noombunnam, country general manager of Informa Markets Thailand, said that while the food industry remains a major source of demand for packaging solutions, pharmaceuticals and beauty products are emerging as the key growth segments.

“Pharmaceutical, beauty products, and other consumer goods (are where) we would like to get more exposure, apart from food,” he told reporters at a briefing in Bangkok.

Informa Markets organizes the annual ProPak Asia, the region’s largest trade exhibition for processing and packaging technology. The company said it has seen rising interest from manufacturers in the two targeted industries seeking advanced packaging solutions.

Mr. Sanchai said that in 2025, about 24% of ProPak Asia visitors came from the consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and personal care industries.

Anupong Nakeenopakul, events manager at Informa Markets, said demand from the supplement and pharmaceutical manufacturing segments is “going up very fast” as companies look for smarter and safer packaging solutions.

“These industries are looking for full safety. Manufacturers are choosing the machines based on safety, and they are preparing for the future of automation. They are also looking into precision packaging,” Mr. Anupong told BusinessWorld.

He added that interest in sustainable packaging is also growing, particularly among larger manufacturers.

Meanwhile, Mr. Anupong said interest is growing among Philippine manufacturers in food processing and packaging machinery

“The Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) always sends buyers to our exhibitions. These are related to agricultural commodities like coconut and mango,” he said.

“In Thailand, we have small and big peeler machines for both. And we have a storage to ferment the mango, or to freeze them to extend their shelf life,” he added.

However, Mr. Anupong said Philippine agriculture has yet to fully maximize opportunities in value-added processing.

He said the country still largely exports raw agricultural commodities and lacks the economies of scale needed to support large manufacturing investment.

“You send the commodity out, and you buy the ingredient back,” he said. “It’s similar to Thailand, where we have a lot of commodities like cassava, which we send to India, to Europe. And then we buy back (cassava starch).”

Informa Markets has said the Philippine processing and packaging industry is expected to grow by about 3.2% annually.

“The overview of the processing and packaging industry in the Philippines is very interesting, with annual growth of around 3.2%,” Rungphech Chitanuwat, general manager for the Philippines at Informa Markets, said.

She added that packaging volume in the Philippines amounted to about 78.5 billion units in 2024 and is projected to rise to 91.8 billion units by 2029, reflecting increased consumption and continued innovation.

Informa Markets will hold the 2026 edition of ProPak Asia on June 10-13 at the IMPACT Challenger Hall in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

Now in its 33^rd year, the event will feature over 2,500 brands from 45 countries, showcasing processing and packaging innovations across the value chain.

The exhibition will highlight more than 18,000 technologies and machinery aligned with ProPak’s 2026 to 2027 investment priorities, including artificial intelligence and machine vision, robotics and automation, among others.