In 2022, the volume of pet food produced worldwide grew 7.25%, more than any other animal feed, analysts with ingredient supplier Alltech reported. However, that growth wasn’t evenly distributed around the world. While economically developing regions saw the highest growth rate, established markets produced the largest amount of pet food.
“[Pet food production] was up even in Europe, the region that dipped most in 2022 feed production,” analysts with pet and human food producer Alltech wrote in their Agri-Food Outlook 2023 report.
Globally, producers made 35.27 million metric tons (MMT) of pet food in 2022, up 2.386 MMT from 32.884 MMT in 2021.
Altech’s report explored the global pet food and livestock feed markets using survey data from 142 countries and 28,000 feed mills.
Pet food production growth by region in 2022
Two areas defined more by culture than continent had the higher pet food production growth rate in 2022.
Geographically, Latin America spans North and South America. Latin American pet food producers increased by the most in 2022. In 2021, the region produced 7.434 million metric tons (MMT) of dog, cat and other pet food. That grew to 8.863 MMT in 2022, and increase of 1.429 MMT or 19.22%.
In Asia and North Africa, Middle Eastern pet food companies had the second largest year-over-year increase, although the overall production volume was much lower than Latin America or most other regions. Middle Eastern pet food production increased 17.5%. However, that represented only a 0.016 MMT increase, from 0.090 MMT in 2021 to 0.106 MMT last year. The Middle East had the smallest pet food production volume of the regions in the survey. Alltech included Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar.
Europe produced the most pet food in 2022 with 11.778 MMT, although that represented growth of only 1.65%. Despite inflation, supply chain disruptions and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, European pet food production grew 0.191 MMT from 11.587 in 2021.
The second highest volume of pet food was produced in North America, including only Canada and the United States. The rest of the continent was included in Latin America. Combined, U.S. and Canadian pet food production reached 11.200 MMT in 2022, up 0.600 MMT or 5.66%. The year before, the two nations produced a combined 10.600 MMT.
The Asia-Pacific region made 9.33% more pet food in 2022 than 2021. Production grew 0.212 MMT from 2.267 MMT in 2021 to 2.478 MTT. Australia and the rest of Oceania increased pet food production by 11.06% in 2022, going from 0.452 MMT in 2021 to 0.502 MMT.
Africa was the only region with lower pet food volume in 2022 than 2021. African pet food production dropped 24.57%, from 0.454 MMT to 0.342 MMT, a decline of .111 MMT.