According to the data disclosed by the Italian Corrugated Carton Manufacturers Association at its latest industry conference, the corrugated paperboard and packaging market in Italy has witnessed a remarkable "V-shaped recovery" in the past year. The data shows that the total output of corrugated paperboard and packaging in Italy increased by 1.6% in 2025, and the total sales reached approximately 8 billion square meters.
This figure not only completely surpassed the historical low point of 2023 (growing by approximately 4.5% compared to the low point), but also steadily returned to the level of 2022, just one step away from the historical peak set in 2021 (with a difference of about 3.5%).
Food and beverages remain dominant, while e-commerce continues to grow stronger.
Among this huge output of 8 billion square meters, corrugated cardboard boxes remain the absolute core force, taking up more than 62% of the market share; while the remaining nearly 38% was divided among corrugated paperboards. The Italian Corrugated Carton Manufacturers Association pointed out that in the past two years, the share of corrugated cardboard boxes has quietly increased by 1%, and the main driving force behind this is the deepening of the internal integration within the packaging industry (that is, the extension of paper mills into paper box processing).
From the perspective of the downstream terminal industries, the food and beverage sector remains the most stable customer base for paper box manufacturers. In Italy as a whole, approximately 62% of the corrugated boxes exported are sold to food and beverage customers. However, compared to 63% in the previous year, this proportion has slightly decreased by 1 percentage point.
The portion that was released has been quickly filled by the gradually recovering e-commerce and other industrial packaging sectors. Its share has risen from 37% to 38%. This minor adjustment once again confirms the heat we felt in supermarkets and express delivery outlets: Eating and drinking are the mainstay, while express delivery and logistics are the fastest-growing and most dynamic growth sectors.
If we look at the entire Europe, we can see that Italy's 1.7% growth this year (with member companies of the Italian corrugated box manufacturing association producing nearly 5.1 billion square meters) stands out quite prominently within the core circle of Europe. Its moderate recovery pace is very similar to that of Spain.
In this behind-the-scenes competition among European countries, Poland once again played the role of an unexpectedly strong underdog. Although the growth rate has slightly slowed down, its output still soared by 8%, reaching a total of 4.8 billion square meters, showing a strong tendency to catch up with Germany, France and Italy. In contrast, the traditional European industrial giants - Germany and France - have experienced a slightly downward trend in their corrugated paper packaging output in the past year.
The "weight loss" packaging trend: The base weight of cartons has dropped by 13% over 25 years
However, as professionals in the field of printing and packaging, we must recognize an unusual industry phenomenon: the absolute weight (in tons) of Italian corrugated cardboard has increased, but it has not kept pace with the increase in production area (in square meters).
In 2025, the total tonnage of all corrugated paper products in Italy was 4.2 million tons, with a year-on-year increase of less than 1%. Why did the area increase rapidly while the tonnage remained stagnant?
