Healthy growth in pet food

These findings were revealed in new market data presented by the market research institute Euromonitor International at the start of the year. Dog food growing fast Like last year, the category of dog food was at the forefront of sales. This market grew by 5.3 per cent compared with 2010, attaining a volume of US$ 38.5 bn worldwide. The key markets were the USA and western Europe, although growth rates were much lower than in other regions. The market for dog food in Latin America is increasing all the time: in 2011, the volume of sales increased by nearly 9 per cent over the previous year to US$ 8.2 bn. This means that the dog food market there is almost as big as in western Europe, and there are no signs of any imminent market saturation. High growth rates were also achieved by dog food in eastern Europe in 2011, with growth of over 10 per cent to US$ 1.6 bn compared with the previous year. Cat food is the second most important pet food category, with a sales volume of US$ 23.2 bn. In most regions of the world, however, cat food generated much lower sales than dog food in 2011. It was a different picture in Europe. Eastern Europe even surpassed the US$ 2 bn mark last year, with growth of over 13 per cent in the market. In western Europe, cat food sales brought in US$ 9.6 bn, signifying a slight increase of 1.2 per cent over 2010. According to Euromonitor International, the market for cat food is much smaller than for dog food in most parts of the globe. In the USA it is nearly half as big with a volume of US$ 6.9 bn and only around a sixth as big in Latin America. It was noticeable in 2011, however, that a big increase in sales of cat food occurred in all regions apart from western Europe, even if the growth rate in dog food globally was more than half a percentage point higher. Australasia saw the world’s biggest increase in cat food sales compared with the previous year, with growth of over 20 per cent, although the cat food market remained quite small with a volume of US$ 779 mio. The market for food for other pets, including small animals, aquariums and caged birds, totalled US$ 4 bn in 2011, according to Euromonitor International. This equated to growth of over 5 per cent compared with the previous year. Once again, Latin America was the growth driver; here the market for food for other pets increased from US$ 637 mio in 2010 to US$ 735 mio. The market in eastern Europe also grew, although not as strongly as the market for dog and cat food. Sales…