Above-average growth in the market for accessories

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Growth was recorded mainly in the cat food and accessory segments, with sales of pet requisites increasing by 3.3 per cent to € 817 mio, while the pet food market grew by 1.8 per cent to € 2.331 bn. Sales of cat food showed a marked increase and this segment grew by 3.8 per cent to € 1.145 bn. Sales of treats and cat milk in particular went up by 10 per cent to € 122 mio. Dry cat food accounted for € 239 mio (+ 5.3 per cent) and moist food for € 784 mio (+ 2.5 per cent). The trend in the dog food market was in sharp contrast to this: sales of treats increased markedly by 3.6 per cent to € 262 mio, but sales of moist food declined by 1.5 per cent to € 321 mio and of dry food by 1.6 per cent to € 363 mio. With sales of € 946 mio and a drop of 0.2 per cent, the dog food market as a whole confirmed the slight downward trend of 2005. As in 2005, the market for fish food grew substantially and 2006 saw an increase of 3 per cent to € 69 mio. However, this positive trend might be attributable less to the aquarium segment than to the development of the garden pond segment. The small animal segment, which recorded growth of 7.2 per cent for food in 2005, "only" increased by 2.8 per cent to € 110 mio and is the third-biggest food segment after cat and dog food. Sales of bird food, on the other hand, declined further from € 61.4 mio to € 61 mio, a drop of 4.7 per cent. Since this segment was severely affected by bird flu and its consequences in 2006, many in the market had expected a bigger fall. Following extraordinary growth in 2005 (+ 4.1 per cent), the very positive trend in the market for pet requisites continued into 2006, with an increase in sales of 3.3 per cent to € 817 mio. According to the IVH's figures, the market for small animal requisites made considerable progress, increasing by 12.8 per cent to € 88 mio. This was followed by fishkeeping accessories for aquariums and garden ponds (+ 4 per cent to € 210 mio), cat litter (+ 2.6 per cent to € 201 mio), articles for dogs (+ 2.5 per cent to € 123 mio) and articles for cats (+ 2.1 per cent to € 148 mio). Only the market for bird accessories suffered a decline according to the IVH, down by 6 per cent to € 47 mio. Distribution channels The significance of the various distribution channels for pet food and accessories scarcely changed in 2006. With sales of € 703 mio, accounting for 86 per cent of overall sales, the speciality trade was the…