In the whole African continent, the food industry market of South Africa, the industry leader, is relatively developed. With the increasing demand of South African residents for packaged food, the rapid growth of food packaging market in South Africa has been promoted, and the development of packaging industry in South Africa has been promoted.

At present, the purchasing power of packaged food in South Africa mainly comes from the middle and upper income class, while the low-income group mainly buys bread, dairy products and oil and other staple food. According to the data, 36% of the food expenditure of low-income households in South Africa is spent on cereals such as corn flour, bread and rice, while the higher income families spend only 17% of their food expenditure.

With the increase of the number of middle class in African countries represented by South Africa, the demand for packaged food in Africa is also growing, which catalyzes the rapid growth of food packaging market in Africa and drives the development of packaging industry in Africa.

At present, the use of various packaging machinery in Africa: the type of packaging machine depends on the type of commodity. Plastic bottles or wide mouth bottles are used for liquid packaging, polypropylene bags, plastic containers, metal containers or cartons are used for powder, cartons or plastic bags or cartons are used for solids, plastic bags or cartons are used for granular materials; cartons, barrels or polypropylene bags are used for wholesale goods, and glass is used for retail goods , plastic, foil, tetrahedral cardboard box or paper bag.

From the perspective of the packaging market in South Africa, the packaging industry in South Africa has achieved record growth in the past few years with the increase of consumer food consumption and the demand for end markets such as beverages, personal care and pharmaceutical products. The packaging market in South Africa reached US $6.6 billion in 2013, with an average annual compound growth rate of 6.05%.

The change of people's lifestyle, the development of import economy, the formation of packaging recycling trend, the progress of technology and the transformation from plastic to glass packaging will be the important factors affecting the development of packaging industry in South Africa in the next few years.

In 2012, the total value of packaging industry in South Africa was 48.92 billion rand, accounting for 1.5% of South Africa's GDP. Although the glass and paper industry produced the largest amount of packaging, plastic contributed the most, accounting for 47.7% of the output value of the whole industry. At present, in South Africa, plastic is still a popular and economical packaging type.

Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm in South Africa, said: the expansion of food and beverage production is expected to boost consumer demand for plastic packaging. It is expected to increase to $1.41 billion in 2016. In addition, as the industrial application of plastic packaging has increased after the global economic crisis, it will help the market to maintain the demand for plastic packaging.

In the past six years, the use rate of plastic packaging in South Africa has increased to 150%, with an average CAGR of 8.7%. South Africa's imports of plastics increased by 40%. Experts analysis, South Africa's plastic packaging market will grow rapidly in the next five years.

According to the latest report of PCI consulting company, the demand for flexible packaging in the Middle East and Africa will increase by about 5% annually. In the next five years, the economic growth of the region will encourage foreign investment and pay more attention to the quality of food processing. Among them, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt are the largest consumer markets in African countries, while Nigeria is the most dynamic market. In the past five years, the demand for flexible packaging has increased by about 12%.

The rapid growth of the middle class, the increasing demand for packaged food and the increasing investment in the food industry have made the packaging product market in South Africa promising. The development of food industry in South Africa not only drives the demand of food packaging products in South Africa, but also catalyzes the import growth of food packaging machinery in South Africa.