The Industrial Starches Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The demand for renewable biopolymers is growing where these are considered as alternatives to synthetic polymers. Starch is one of the abundant polymers in nature. Native and modified starches are used in a wide variety of food and non-food applications. It has been extensively studied because it is abundant, cheap, biodegradable, and edible. Starch-based plastics are complex blends of starch with compostable polyesters. Major bioplastics players, BASF and Novamont, have both launched highly sustainable solutions for fresh-food packaging in two major compostable cling film breakthroughs. BASF SE offers certified compostable ecovio material, while Novamont provides MATER-BI material replacing the hard-to-recycle conventional plastics, like polyethylene (PE) while increasing product shelf-life, thus, tackling both plastic pollution and food waste simultaneously.

The North American market is extensively driven by increasing sales of industrial starches in the United States. Globally, the United States was the largest producer of corn with a production of 366.6 million metric ton in 2018-2019, which is utilized in various application areas, including the production of starch. In January 2020, Tate & Lyle introduced a range of non-GMO ingredients, including starches made from dent corn of the country for its application in jelly confections and processed cheese for the enhancement of their texture. In 2019, an upsurge of 63% in the wheat production was witnessed in the country, compared to the previous year. Additionally, the country also imports wheat for its domestic consumption, thus, catering to the Mexican wheat starch market and further catering to the North American market.