Debbie Phillips-Donaldson, editor-in-chief of Petfood Industry, shares her insights and opinions on all things pet food, addressing market trends as well as news and developments in pet nutrition, food safety and other hot topics for the industry.
New global pet food sales data shows healthy growth of 4.8 percent over 2015 – definitely something to celebrate as we head into 2017. | Natalia Ermakova, Bigstock.com
Global pet food sales update: ending 2016 on a high note
Global pet food sales are expected to top US$75 billion dollars when 2016 is all wrapped up, according to Euromonitor International. That figure represents very healthy growth of 4.8 percent over 2015 – definitely something to celebrate as we head into a new year.
Of that US$75.25 billion in sales, dog food accounts for over half, at US$45.19 billion, a robust 5.2 percent increase over the previous year. Cat food added another US$26.03 billion (4.5 percent growth), with the remaining US$4.03 billion coming from pet food for other species. (Note that Euromonitor expects to finalize its 2016 data by April 2017.)
As it has for several years now, North America dominated this year, finishing with US$31.23 billion in sales, a 4 percent increase over 2015, or just a little less than the global rate. Other developed, mature pet food regions like Western Europe and Australasia saw 2.1 percent growth rates, which is encouraging considering that Western Europe especially has been fairly stagnant for a few years. Its sales ended up at US$21.16 billion, while Australasia reached US$2.45 billion.
The developing regions of the world are where the pet food growth is really happening, following a pattern we’ve seen for a while. Latin America especially shone, recording not only 13.6 percent growth but also hitting US$9.15 billion in sales. Asia Pacific (5.9 percent growth and US$6.53 billion) and Eastern Europe (7.4 percent growth and US$4 billion) also hit very positive notes. Middle East and Africa enjoyed a robust 10.6 percent growth but from relatively tiny sales of only US$711 million.
Adding to this upbeat mood, preliminary data from Alltech’s latest Global Feed Survey show that dry pet food production reached nearly 25 (24.98) million metric tons in 2016, a hardy 10.6 percent increase over 2016. More to come on that in about a month, when Alltech releases its full report.
On the top pet food stories for 2016
To round out this year, my colleagues at Petfood Industry looked at online user data from Google Analytics to determine the top news items and blog posts from our website for 2016. I won’t repeat the lists here, but several themes stand out:
You want to read about your own and other pet food companies, especially compared to one another. This shows up in the popularity of posts from our Top Pet Food Companies database. To further help you in using that information in your job and company, we are undertaking a large project starting in January 2017 to update and improve the data in the database. (If you receive an email asking for help with your company’s information, we would greatly appreciate your cooperation!)
Reports on pet food market trends are important bellwethers of the status and health of our industry. Don’t worry, we’ll keep those coming.
To everyone in the pet food industry and your family and friends, here’s to a happy, healthy 2017!
Pet owners want a lot from their pet food brands. They want primary proteins that suit what they believe is best for their animal. They want grains or they don't. They want something customized, but it has to be easy to understand.
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