The costs of many components for making pet food continue to rise, especially for canned dog and cat food, and are increasingly driving up retail prices.

Pet food has closely followed human food for several years, especially with trends, but unfortunately, now it’s also following closely in terms of inflation.

Pet food and pet products sales are still increasing, but largely due to price inflation, which is also affecting consumer demand for certain products.

Pet intakes at U.S. animal shelters are up in 2022 but still lower than in pre-pandemic 2019, though worrisome indicators, especially for dogs, bear watching.

Following the human food trend, plant-based pet foods continue to grow in popularity and sales, boosted by supply chain issues with animal-based proteins.

Pet food brands can use celebrations like National Dog Day to engage their customers, but such events may not really influence consumer behavior.

Pet food inflation hit 10.9% in July 2022, tracking still rising human food inflation, even as overall inflation for the total U.S. economy declined.

Pet treat sales, especially for cats, accelerated during the pandemic, following a growth trajectory that started a few years before and is likely to continue.

Plant-based pet food ingredients continue to gain interest from consumers and producers, but making pet foods with them is not necessarily straightforward.

The pet food industry may find answers to supply chain problems with technologies in areas like protein ingredients and packaging materials and production.