New bio-based push: how Kemira’s Fennobio packaging solutions target plastics replacement

Kemira is expanding its Fennobio bio-based packaging portfolio with barrier solutions designed to cut fossil plastics in fiber packaging. The chemistry specialist targets food, e-commerce and industrial uses where recyclability and performance must align.

Edited by ad hoc news New Releases & Launches Desk. Reviewed before publication on 06/16/2026 at 2:55 AM ET. Details in the imprint.

Kemira is sharpening its focus on sustainable packaging chemistry with its expanding Fennobio bio-based barrier solutions, aimed at helping paper and board producers replace fossil-based plastics in demanding food, e-commerce and industrial applications. The company positions the Fennobio line as a high-performance, fiber-based alternative for coatings and barriers where water, grease and oxygen resistance are essential but recyclability and compostability are increasingly non-negotiable for brand owners.

Kemira’s Fennobio portfolio: fiber-based barriers for packaging makers

Fennobio is Kemira’s branded family of bio-based barrier and surface-treatment chemistries for paper and board, designed to enable plastic-free or plastic-reduced packaging while maintaining mechanical strength and barrier performance. According to Kemira, Fennobio solutions are formulated to work on existing paper and board production lines, allowing mills and converters to adapt more quickly to regulatory pressure on single-use plastics and to meet brand-owner sustainability targets without fully redesigning their processes. Kemira’s packaging board solutions overview describes Fennobio as a key part of its sustainable portfolio.

The product line is aimed at several concrete use cases, including food service items like takeaway boxes and cups, folding boxboard for dry foods, and corrugated materials used in e-commerce where moisture resistance and printability matter. Fennobio chemistries are typically applied as surface treatments or coatings that create liquid, grease and gas barriers on fiber-based substrates, and Kemira highlights that these bio-based formulations are engineered to preserve recyclability in conventional paper recovery streams when implemented correctly.

In public materials, the company emphasizes that Fennobio products are based on renewable raw materials and are designed to support compliance with tightening European Union rules on single-use plastics and packaging waste, especially for food-contact packaging. The solutions sit alongside Kemira’s conventional sizing, strength and wet-end chemistries, giving packaging producers a menu of options to gradually lower the fossil-based plastic content of their portfolios rather than relying solely on traditional polyethylene or multilayer plastic coatings.

The Fennobio platform also fits into Kemira’s broader innovation roadmap, which focuses on water-intensive industries such as pulp and paper, where regulations and customer expectations are pushing toward circular, low-carbon materials. The company has flagged sustainable packaging chemistry as a growth area linked to shifting consumer habits, including the rise of online retail and takeaway food, both of which require robust yet more environmentally friendly fiber-based packaging formats.

In a recent sustainability and innovation update, Kemira pointed out that demand for fiber-based packaging solutions is being driven not only by legislation but also by large consumer brands setting their own timelines for reducing plastics and improving recyclability across their supply chains. This backdrop gives Fennobio a strategic role as a branded, recognizable platform that can be discussed directly with brand owners and converters, rather than remaining an anonymous ingredient chemistry. Kemira’s sustainability pages highlight packaging chemistry as a key growth focus.

From an operational perspective, the Fennobio range allows Kemira to leverage its existing customer base in the pulp and paper sector, where it is already a major supplier of retention aids, sizing agents and strength resins. By adding bio-based barriers under a unified product name, the company can cross-sell to mills and converters looking to adapt their product portfolios without taking on the full development risk of in-house chemistry. This is particularly relevant as packaging producers balance performance specifications, regulatory compliance and cost pressure when choosing between incumbent plastic coatings and emerging bio-based alternatives.

The rise of cellulose-based and other bio-based barrier technologies in the wider market also sets the competitive context for Fennobio. Industry research points to increasing pilot-scale and commercial deployments of plastic-free coatings and films that mimic conventional plastics’ oxygen and grease barrier performance, giving packaging producers more non-plastic tools to work with. Recent reports on cellulose-based film and coating technologies underscore how quickly this area is moving.

Against this backdrop, Kemira presents Fennobio not as a single product but as a modular platform that can be tailored for different board grades and end uses, from high-barrier food applications to more standard moisture protection in transit packaging. For packaging customers, that modularity is likely to matter as they test and validate new barrier concepts with converters, brand owners and regulators, often under compressed timelines dictated by upcoming packaging-waste and recyclability rules in key markets.

Within Kemira’s portfolio, Fennobio is one of the visible touchpoints where the group’s sustainability messaging meets a concrete, named technology, supporting its positioning as a specialty chemicals supplier for resource-efficient and low-carbon solutions. For investors following the company, the evolution and adoption of Fennobio and related bio-based chemistries help illustrate how the traditional pulp and paper chemicals business may shift as fiber-based packaging grows and plastic substitution accelerates.

Kemira is headquartered in Helsinki and generates a substantial share of its revenue from pulp and paper customers, making packaging-related solutions strategically relevant for its long-term growth profile. Shares of Kemira (FI0009004824) are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki; the company is part of the OMX Helsinki indices that include Finnish industrial and chemicals groups.

Kemira Fennobio quick profile

• Product: Fennobio bio-based barrier solutions
• Manufacturer: Kemira Oyj
• Category: New Release - sustainable packaging chemistry
• Launch date: Gradual portfolio rollout in recent years, focused on current sustainable packaging demand
• MSRP / Price: Not publicly disclosed, negotiated B2B pricing
• Availability: Offered globally to paper and board producers, with emphasis on Europe and other markets tightening packaging rules
• Target audience: Pulp and paper mills, board producers and converters supplying food, e-commerce and industrial packaging
• Key differentiator / USP: Bio-based barrier chemistries designed to reduce fossil plastics use while maintaining recyclability of fiber-based packaging

This article was a.i.-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without warranty; prices and availability may change at short notice. Not investment advice and not a buy or sell recommendation. Trading involves risk up to and including the total loss of invested capital.