The pet business in Russia

No more than 5 per cent of entrepreneurs are united in various business organisations. "Opora Rossii" (Russian Public Organisation of Small and Medium Russian Businesses) is an all-Russian public organisation of small and medium- sized enterprises founded in September 2002. It works for the improvement and invigoration of the business climate in Russia. The association has become a logical extension of the activities of the Non-Profit Partnership, which is currently an integral part of the organisation and unites about one hundred industrial guilds, unions and associations around the country as a whole. The special feature of the organisation is its so-called matrix approach: there are committees, which draft proposals on general issues of entrepreneurship (tax policy, customs, antimonopoly legislation, property relations, etc.), but there are industrial commissions as well (on the textile industry, on sports, transport, insurance, agriculture, construction, the restaurant trade, retail trade, communal housing services, and other sectors), which draft branch-specific proposals to be considered in committees, and integration of special branch-specific suggestions into the general proposals of Opora Rossii, which form the basis for dialogue.Representatives of entrepreneurial communities in the pet industry sphere have been members of the association since the first days of its existence. The largest industrial association - the Union of Zoo Industry Enterprises - is one of the most active business associations of the organisation. It was created at the initiative of the largest non-governmental organisations, uniting companies in the pet industry sphere, entrepreneurs operating in the sphere of production and import of feeds and drugs for animals, the wholesale and retail trade in pet supplies, and those providing veterinary and information services. The chairman of the board of the union, Sergey Spirin, is also a member of the presidium of Opora Rossii. And in addition to that he heads a special commission on the pet supplies business.The pet industry in Russia began developing less than 15 years ago. This sector of the Russian market has made huge advances in its development. According to statistical data, more than 2/3 of the population of Russia have pets. On average Russian people spend from $ 10 to 800 per month on pets, depending on the level of personal income. The growth in the pet food market constitutes 20-30 per cent annually in major cities of…