Paper and Cardboard Packaging: Segments and Markets with Highest Export Potential

Several markets in structural growth phase, spread across the main segments, support the growth of the sector

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Intermediate goods International marketing Uncertainty Marketselection Foreign markets Export markets Foreign market analysis
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The 2024 final data on world trade flows, available in the Ulisse ExportPlanning Datamart, confirmed the good dynamism of international sales of Paper and Cardboard Packaging1: last year, despite slowing down compared to the previous two years, world trade in the sector confirmed historic high levels (close to 35 billion euros), at levels almost 24 percentage points higher than pre-pandemic levels2.

Paper and Cardboard Packaging:
Which segments and markets are driving growth?

With the recent update of the Market Selection-ExportPlanning tool, a new sector indicator called "Import Development Stage" was introduced. This indicator can classify each country into one of three stages of the import life cycle for a specific product: Latency, Growth, and Saturation3.
This indicator is particularly useful for companies interested in expanding, diversifying, and optimizing their export destinations, as it allows them to identify those markets where imports of a given product are in a phase of structural growth.

The table below highlights the most relevant segments of the Paper and Cardboard Packaging sector with the largest number of markets experiencing import growth.


Paper and Cardboard Packaging:
Number of Growing Markets and their Value of Imports

Number
of markets		 Imports 2024
(millions €)
Corrugated Board, in rolls or sheets 34 214
Boxes of Paper or Corrugated Cardboard 28 874
Paper Sacks 28 223
Cartons, Boxes and Folding, non-corrugated paper or paperboard 27 727
Envelopes of paper and cardboard for offices and shops 27 547
Paper Labels 17 200
Paper Bags (different formats and uses) 35 522
Source: StudiaBo processing on ExportPlanning database

The Corrugated Cardboard, in rolls or sheets4 segment stands out above all others, with 34 international markets in growth, for a total associated import value of 451 million euros.
In particular, as the graph below highlights, a market driving growth in this segment is the Polish market, whose corrugated cardboard imports have shown a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of +20 percent in euro values over the last decade.

Other segments with a high number of international Growth markets and a significant associated total import value are:

  • Boxes of Paper or Corrugated Cardboard: 28 Growth markets4, for an associated value of 874 million euros;
  • Paper Sacks: 28 Growth markets5, for an associated value of 223 million euros;
  • Cartons, Boxes and Folding, non-corrugated paper or paperboard: 27 Growth markets6, for an associated value of 727 million euros;
  • Envelopes of paper and cardboard for offices and shops: 27 Growth markets Growth7, with an associated value of 547 million euros;
  • Paper Labels: 17 markets in the Growth phase8, with an associated value of 200 million euros.

Last but not least, it is worth highlighting the Paper Bags (different formats and uses)9 segment, which - although residual from a denominational standpoint - has a significant impact on global sales in the sector (close to 13% in value) and which has 35 markets in the Growth phase10, with an associated value of 522 million euros.

Conclusions

Using the Import Development Stage indicator can help highlight the greatest export opportunities for a particular sector, at the segment and market level.
In particular, this indicator is clearly useful for identifying the most dynamic components in terms of product segments, i.e., those characterized by a significant number of growth markets, and the related growth markets that are most significant in terms of import value.


1) See here the related description table.
2) It should also be highlighted that, when measured at constant prices, i.e. net of inflationary and exchange rate phenomena, the sector's growth performance is decidedly less significant, with a gain of approximately 7 percentage points compared to pre-pandemic levels (2019).
3) There is also another category, called “Unclassified”, which includes countries that, for a given product, do not have sufficient data available on imports or GDP. For further information on the methodology used to build the indicator, you can refer to the article: Market selection: the new "Import Development Stage" indicator to discover the most promising export markets.
4) In particular, for the Boxes of Paper or Corrugated Cardboard segment, the following markets stand out - above all - in Sweden (€181.9 million in 2024), Algeria (€110 million in 2024, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate [CAGR] of +15.6% in the last decade), Thailand (€98.4 million in 2024, with a CAGR of +20.6% in the last decade), Philippines (€77.5 million in 2024, with a CAGR of +24.7% in the last decade) and Cambodia (€63.1 million in 2024).
5) In particular, for the Paper Sacks segment, the following markets stand out: - above all - the cases of the markets of Germany (€59.6 million in imports in 2024), Philippines (€26.3 million in imports in 2024, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate [CAGR] of +33.6% over the last decade), Greece (€21.2 million in imports in 2024, with a CAGR of +21.6% over the last decade), and Honduras (€19.7 million in imports in 2024, with a CAGR of +32% over the last decade).
6) In particular, for the Cartons, Boxes and Folding, non-corrugated paper or paperboard segment, we note - above all - the cases of the markets of United Arab Emirates (€146.9 million in 2024), Greece (€99.8 million in 2024, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate [CAGR] of +13.4% in the last decade), Thailand (€95.4 million in 2024), India (€64.7 million in 2024, with a CAGR of +22.7% in the last decade) and South Africa (€53.6 million in 2024).
7) In particular, for the Envelopes of paper and cardboard for offices and shops segment, the markets of Italy (€173.8 million in 2024, with a Compound Annual Growth Rate [CAGR] of +17.1% in the last decade), Greece (€102.8 million in 2024, with a CAGR of +15.8% over the last decade), Japan (€91.1 million in 2024) and Russia (€65.1 million in 2024).
8) In particular, for the Paper Labels segment, the markets of Thailand (€74.7 million in 2024) and Japan (€57.2 million in 2024) are noteworthy.
9) See here the related description table.
10) In particular, for the segment Paper Bags (different formats and uses), the most notable cases are those of the markets of Australia (211 million euros of imports in 2024) and South Korea (84 million euros), both characterised by Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGRs) in the last decade close to +14% in euro values.