Glass is best packaging material in preserving taste, aroma, and nutritional values of the food. Glass is environment friendly and has tremendous growth opportunities in India, as India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

The size of the glass industry in India is around $2.5 billion, out of which the container glass industry is around $0.87 billion. The major consumer industries for container glass are: liquor , beer, pharmaceuticals, soft drinks, food, and non-CSD segments. Export has a 10% share of the total container glass industry offtake in India. The alcohol segment uses more than 60% of the container glass segment, followed by food and beverages industries. The size of the float glass segment is around $0.75 billion in India, and is growing as a result of growth in construction and automotive sectors. The float glass market of India has huge growth potential. It is seen that general awareness of using it as building material is slowly increasing in India.

Some of the advantages of Glass are:

– It helps to maintain the purity of food and beverages
– It preserves the taste
– It is non-porous
– Glass is 100% recyclable
– Glass is resistant to chemicals and solvent
– Glass is a very good packaging material
– Glass can be used very well in design and architecture

AIGMF is the committee for the glass industry in India, and which has good information on the growth and plans of the glass Industry in India.