Even though pet food inflation hit the Mexican market in 2022, some brands weathered the storm and didn’t initiate high price increases, allowing local consumers to continue purchasing pet food at relatively affordable prices.
According to official data, pet food consumer inflation in Mexico peaked in the second quarter of 2022, averaging 11.1% on an annual basis. Then, in September 2022, pet food inflation decelerated to 9.1% in annual terms. With consumer inflation having reached its highest point, prices are expected to continue decelerating in the coming months. It is worth noting that pet food inflation for producers also declined to 8.5% in September 2022.
Local pet owners not facing price increases
Typically, as inflation affects their financial situations, many Mexican consumers make the decision to downgrade to economy-type pet food brands to continue their pets’ level of consumption.
Some dog food brands that may had benefited from such migration are Perrón, Beriscan, Lidercan, Nutrescan and Campeón. All are economy products that registered the lowest price increases in the period and the lowest price per kilo across brands.
The most affordable product on the list was Perrón, produced by El Nogal, with an average price of US$1.14 per kilo in September 2022. Perrón registered just a 5% annual price increase. Another affordable product was Nutrescan dry dog food, by GrandPet, with a price of just US$1.2 per kilo in September.
Gran Chunk by Industrial Pecuaria de Los Altos averaged just US$1.2 per kilo in the same period with only a 4.3% price increase in the review period. The fourth most affordable product was Beriscan dry dog food, by Productos Agropecuarios Beristain, at US$1.37 per kilo. Finally, Campeón by Purina posted an average price of US$2.57 per kilo while registering a 3% price increase in September 2022 compared to the same month the previous year.
Affordable cat food alternatives against inflation
As for cat food, the price of Luckycat dry food price averaged just US$1.23 per kilo, while Pal Gato, by Mars, registered US$1.67 per kilo, with no price increase in the period.
As local companies rely on a portfolio of brands based on price, consumers (as well as producers) may benefit during inflationary periods despite other brands registering up to double-digit price increases. Therefore, price variety in the Mexican market is a fundamental reason explaining strong pet food growth in volume terms, regardless of the economy.
