Demand for flexible pouch packaging in the US will rise 7 percent annually through 2008, reaching sales of $5.2 billion, says a new study by Cleveland-based market researcher The Freedonia Group, Inc.

Eighty-seven billion pouch units are expected to be sold in 2008, which will represent 5 percent of all US packaging demand that year. Value-added features such as resealability, spouts, and retort and aseptic properties are driving growth.

Standup pouches will see the strongest increases, Freedonia says, gaining wide consumer acceptance since the late 1990s. About $624 million worth of standup pouches were sold in 2003, primarily for food-packaging applications.

Despite US market maturity helping to restrain growth overall, flat pouches will still dominate this segment, the study says. Gains are expected for three- and four-side seal pouches in shredded cheese and other food applications as a result of processing improvements that make the addition of zippers to pouches produced on vertical form-fill-seal machinery more viable. Flat pouches with retort properties are also forecasted to rapidly replace metal cans.