South Korean paper manufacturer KleanNara is expanding exports of its Clay Coated Kraft Board (CCKB) into South Africa, targeting new customers in premium packaging applications.

The company says the grade offers higher strength, water resistance and printability than conventional white paperboard and is suited to applications including home-meal replacement and household-product packaging. KleanNara is also increasing the share of higher-value grades such as CCKB within a portfolio historically weighted toward grey-back board.

On its own, that is a straightforward export-expansion story.

The timing makes it more interesting.

Just days after KleanNara announced the South African push, South Africa launched a sector-wide review of its paper and paper-products trade regime, including tariffs, trade remedies and a possible import-surveillance system. Local producers have cited rising import penetration and high electricity and transport costs as major pressures.

That creates an important tension:

South Africa wants more recyclable packaging options, but its domestic paper industry is simultaneously asking policymakers to examine growing import competition.

KleanNara is selling more than sustainability

KleanNara is positioning CCKB as an environmentally preferable, higher-value packaging grade.

The company says interest is growing in board containing recycled raw material and in brown-back products that retain a more natural appearance. It also links global demand growth to tighter packaging rules, including the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation.

But in South Africa, sustainability alone may not be enough to differentiate the product.

The country already has a functioning fibre-recovery system.

South Africa’s paper recycling rate reached 63.3% in 2025, up from 60% in 2024, with roughly 1.2 million tonnes of paper and paper packaging being diverted from landfill annually.

That means imported board will increasingly need to compete on a broader specification:

strength,

printability,

moisture resistance,

convertibility,

price,

and compatibility with local recycling systems.

In other words, “recyclable paperboard” is becoming an entry requirement rather than a complete value proposition.

Performance may be the more important differentiator

This is where CCKB’s technical positioning matters.

Food and household-goods packaging often requires better surface quality, stiffness and moisture resistance than basic folding boxboard applications.

KleanNara says CCKB has been developed specifically to combine those functional properties with recycled raw-material content.

If the grade can deliver higher performance without adding coatings or structures that complicate recycling, that could make it attractive to converters looking to replace more complex packaging formats.

But the company has not publicly disclosed enough technical detail to independently assess the recyclability of every finished package made from CCKB.

That distinction matters.

Paperboard as a substrate may be recyclable, but coatings, laminations, inks and adhesives used in the finished pack can still change the recycling outcome.

PPWR is relevant—but not directly a South African regulation

KleanNara also points to Europe’s PPWR as evidence that global packaging requirements are becoming stricter.

That is directionally correct.

The PPWR began applying in phases from August 12, 2026, and requires packaging placed on the EU market to move toward defined recyclability criteria, with major design-for-recycling requirements taking effect from 2030.

But one point should remain precise:

PPWR does not create a general recycled-content mandate for paperboard comparable to its recycled-content requirements for plastic packaging.

Its wider relevance is that multinational brands are increasingly standardizing packaging specifications around recyclability and material efficiency across multiple markets.

That can indirectly support demand for grades such as CCKB outside Europe.

South Africa is becoming a more complicated market for imported board

The commercial opportunity is real, but so is the policy uncertainty.

South Africa’s current paper-sector review will examine tariff structures, trade remedies and the effect of imports on domestic producers. The review is ongoing, and no blanket new tariff on imported paperboard has been established simply because the investigation has begun.

That matters for KleanNara.

Its South African growth strategy will depend not only on winning converters and brand owners but also on:

freight economics,

exchange rates,

tariff treatment,

local board pricing,

and future trade-policy decisions.

The company already exports paperboard across Asia, North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Oceania, and it established a Ho Chi Minh City office in 2022 to strengthen its Southeast Asian sales network.

South Africa now appears to be the next market where KleanNara wants to build a longer-term customer base.

The real competition will be value per tonne

The South African opportunity therefore should not be reduced to a simple story of “green Korean paperboard enters Africa.”

The more important question is whether an imported board can justify its position through enough added value to offset freight and any future trade friction.

For converters, that value could come from:

better print results,

stronger packaging at lower basis weight,

improved moisture resistance,

or easier conversion.

For KleanNara, that is where the real commercial test lies.

South Africa already knows how to recycle paper.

What KleanNara now has to prove is that its CCKB can deliver enough performance and economics to earn a place in that established fibre market.

Last Updated on 22/09/2026 by Jota Machinery