Source: Book on Plastics for Food Packaging, presented by Indian Institute of Packaging, Mumbai and published by Indian Centre for Plastics in the Environment, Mumbai
The bakery industry, production
of which has been increasing
steadily in the country, is the largest among the processed food industries in India. The two major bakery industries, viz. bread and biscuit account for about 82% of the total bakery products.
The annual production of bakery products, which includes bread, biscuits, pastries, cakes, buns, rusk etc., is estimated to be in excess of 3 million tonnes. The production of bread and biscuits in the country, both in the organised and unorganised sectors, is estimated to be around 0.44 million tonnes and 11 million tonnes respectively. The cake and pastry market estimated at 0.4 million tonnes, is the fast growing market with volume growth of 16%. The break up of production of bread and biscuits is given in Table 1.
India’s bakery market at Rs. 49.5 billion tonnes makes it the third largest market in Asia Pacific, only after Japan and Australia.
The bakery industry in India comprises of organised and unorganised sectors. The organised sector consists of large, medium and small-scale manufacturers who produce packaged biscuits and bread. The unorganised sector consists of small bakery units, cottage and household type manufacturing their goods without much packaging and distributing their goods in the surrounding areas. Bread market is estimated to be growing at around 7% p.a. in volume terms, whereas the biscuit market has witnessed a higher growth at around 8-10%. Within the biscuit category, cream and speciality biscuits are growing at a faster rate of 20% p.a. The per-capita consumption of biscuits in India is around 900 gms as compared to 15-20 kg. for developed countries. The consumption of biscuits is equally divided between the urban and rural population. Demand for biscuits in 2003-2004 is likely to exceed 1.2 million tonnes.
Bakery products are an important source of nutrients viz. energy, protein, iron, calcium and several vitamins. Commercial bread and biscuits contain around 7.5% to 7.8% protein respectively. Biscuits are amongst the lowest cost processed food in the country when compared to other Indian sweets and salted snacks. Biscuits are easy to use during travel or at home because of its availability in variety of pack sizes. They also offer substantial energy. Thus biscuits have an important role to play as a diet supplement for both adults and children. It is no longer viewed as a luxury tea-time snack but essential daily food component for an average Indian household.
The packaging of bakery products is closely interlinked with production, preservation, storage, transportation and marketing. The importance of packaging can further be gauged from the fact that packaging constitutes a fair portion (10 to 25%) of the entire cost of the pack.
....contd.
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