2017 — Cartonpack · 50 years of packaging for fresh produce — a quiet evolution

Packaging for fresh fruit and vegetables is one of those supply-chain elements the consumer almost never thinks about, yet its quality decides half the commercial success of a category. If a tomato reaches the shelf without bruises, if strawberries don't go off after 36 hours, if an apple looks right — much of it is the work of packaging companies that have spent decades testing, refining, and scaling solutions. Cartonpack is one of them. More than 50 years of operation, and in that time it has grown from a maker of classic packages into a technological partner for the fresh-food industry.

The core of Cartonpack's offer is in three areas: thermoforming (forming packaging from film using heat and vacuum), films for multiple applications, and multi-material design — where different layers and materials are combined to achieve specific effects like extending shelf life. In practice, these are the packages we see every day: strawberry punnets, cherry-tomato trays, film seals on salad bags, smart films protecting soft fruit from leaks.

In 2017, even though Polish fresh produce was operating at mature scale, packaging was still an after-thought for many local growers. People thought about production, varieties, logistics — and took care of packaging "once the goods were ready." Firms with deep experience in this category, like Cartonpack, already knew the approach didn't scale. A Polish supplier entering a European market must discuss packaging as seriously as caliber and price — because retailers ask about both in the same meeting.

Today Cartonpack operates as part of a larger industrial ecosystem focused on food packaging. The company develops not just the package itself but the solutions around it: shelf-life extension via modified atmosphere (MAP), laminates that keep barrier properties while reducing weight, and materials that replace classic plastics — a share that has to grow steadily on the European market given the regulatory frame.

From a Polish Fresh Market participant's perspective, Cartonpack's presence is interesting for one detail: it's not a local player, but across decades it has helped build the standards Polish growers must meet to sell in Western markets. Every strawberry pack heading for Germany is the result of thousands of hours of packaging work on what looks like a detail — but isn't.

The 20th edition of Fresh Market is a good moment to remember that the fresh-produce story isn't just field and cold-chain. It's also 50 years of work by firms like Cartonpack, doing one thing throughout: making sure the product reaches the consumer in the same shape it left the packhouse.

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Cartonpack is one of the companies that shaped Fresh Market — with us since the 2017 edition. Join the 20th edition: Fresh Market 2026, 24 September, MCC Mazurkas, Warsaw. Register: https://freshmarket.eu/registration

Fresh Market 2026 — rejestracja: https://freshmarket.eu/registration