The news you need to know: March 2026

Welcome to Food & Drink Business PLAY. Here are our top stories for March. It was a big month for deals, policy and industry shake-ups. Let's get into it.

Packaging News

In an initiative led by Viva Energy in partnership with Nestlé, a limited run of KitKat chocolate bars wrapped in locally manufactured recycled PP is rolling out to stores nationwide, demonstrating the potential for locally collected soft plastics to be returned to food-grade packaging in Australia.

Three Gold awards and a Silver saw RePlay top the medal tally in this year's PIDA awards. But behind the accolades lies an equally important story: the practical challenges of making reusable packaging systems commercially viable.

Australia's peak paper industry association has rebranded as the APPIA, reflecting what it says is the growing importance of fibre-based packaging across Australia and New Zealand.