Even in the midst of a global pandemic, the pet food production market continues to grow exponentially. While growth is being driven by developing and emerging markets, better quality pet food is still in high demand in mature markets.
In some areas of these plants, established food security protocols evolved into human health measures. However, the pandemic did increase the use of automation in other parts of the operations, such as offices and cafeterias.
Learn about the dry expanded (extruded) pet food production process, including the final steps of coating the kibble and packaging it for distribution.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, pet food producers and ingredient suppliers expanded their operations in 2020 as the twin trends of premiumization and humanization drove demand.
Buhler’s newly opened Food Application Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, currently focuses on human food, but the Center’s director is open to working with pet food makers too.
Inspiring employees to a higher purpose may have motivated them, but a pet food industry supplier needs to have the infrastructure behind that mission too.
While the pandemic caused unprecedented suffering worldwide in 2020, the disruptions to dogs, cats and other pets adoption numbers may normalize in 2021.