India-based Yash Pakka Limited (YPL) intends to open a plant in Central America by 2025 to make compostable flexible packaging for sale in North America.
The company has signed a memorandum of understanding with Guatemala’s major sugar companies to procure bagasse, the primary raw material used for its products, according to an article in Paper Mart, a magazine for the pulp, paper, and converting industries in India.
The company says the plant should be operational by mid-2025, with a production capacity of 400 tons per day. The plant primarily will produce flexible packaging and molded fiber products.
North America will be its primary market. The company told the magazine that it chose Guatemala because of the widespread availability of sugarcane, as well as the positive response it received from the country’s authorities and sugar companies.
“We are delighted to partner with the Guatemalan sugar industry to start the process of setting up the world’s largest compostable packaging and molded fiber facility,” said Ved Krishna, strategy lead at YPL, in a news report. “The idea is to work toward developing better biomaterials for food packaging and service.”