What a relief! We made it through this difficult year. As
the latest data from Euromonitor International shows, the
petfood industry has weathered the economic storm better than
most and is even still growing. Euromonitor says global sales
of dog and cat food will reach US$52 billion this year, up from
US$49 billion in 2008.
The year over year growth, however, was just .6%, quite a
decline from the heady rates of recent years. According
to Euromonitor's projections, the industry will need to cope
with that slower growth for a while longer.
From 2004 through this year, global sales of dog and cat
food grew nearly 30% overall (
Figure 1
). But Euromonitor predicts global sales will grow just 13%
over the next five years, with high growth regions like Eastern
Europe and Latin America crashing to earth, at least relative
to the stratospheric heights they enjoyed the previous five
years. Only Asia Pacific will grow slightly more through 2014
than it did the previous five years.
The decline becomes clearer when you compare compound annual
growth rates (CAGRs) for dog and cat food (
Figure 2
). Two years ago, when Euromonitor looked back at the previous
five years (2002-2007), it measured CAGRs such as 7% globally
and for Western Europe, 24% for Eastern Europe, nearly 16% for
Latin America and nearly 5% for North America.
In just two years, CAGRs (2004-2009) fell to 5% globally,
15% for Eastern Europe, 12% for Latin America and a huge drop
to just under 3% for Western Europe. Only North America stayed
the same.
Projecting the next five years, Euromonitor says global and
North America CAGR will be only 2.5%, with Eastern Europe
falling to just under 8%, Latin America to just under 4% and
Western Europe and Australasia to downright scary rates below
1%. Asia Pacific's CAGR will grow slightly, from just under 3%
now to 3.2% through 2014.
Still, some growth is better than none. And with reports of
strong US pet trade shows this fall and robust preliminary
numbers from 2010's global events such as Victam
Asia and
Interzoo, we can truly look forward to the new year.