In interviewing pet food experts for her annual January article on top trends, Editor Lindsay Beaton discovered many also had a top concern for 2024: consumer spending. No surprise, given two years of high inflation in pet food (and many other consumer categories) following a period of economic uncertainty. Pet food is famously resilient, but as Beaton put it, “data show those with furry friends still want to spend on their animals … they just want to do it more thoughtfully.”
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data indicate U.S. pet food prices were nearly 23% higher in November 2023 compared to November 2019, despite the rate of pet food inflation declining steadily the last half of 2023. How should pet food companies respond? After all, many are still paying higher prices, too. The pet food producer price index also decreased in 2023 but ended up almost 29% higher than in November 2019, per BLS data analyzed by John Gibbons of PetBusinessProfessor.com.
