At the turn of the last century most non-fuel industrial products; dyes, inks, paint, medicines, chemicals, clothing, synthetic fibres and plastics were made from biobased resources. By the 1970s petroleum-derived materials, had to a large extent, replaced those materials derived from natural resources. Recent developments are raising the prospects that naturally derived resources again will be a major contributor to the production of industrial products. Currently, scientists and engineers successfully perform developments and technologies that will bring down costs and optimise performance of biobased products. At the same time environmental concerns are intensifying the interest in agricultural and forestry resources as alternative feedstocks. A sustained growth of this industry will depend on the development of new markets and costs and performance competitive biobased products. A potential new market for these materials is food packaging, a highly competitive area with great demands for performance and cost.

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