Cats are in vogue

Even if people are fond of saying that cats dictate what their owners do for them, one thing at least is obvious: the importance of cats as members of the family is growing, even in countries where they lived exclusively outdoors hitherto and caught their own food.Take the example of Turkey. A central database maintained by veterinary clinics suggests that there are around 2 mio cats in Turkey. This doesn't include those that live on the streets and in remote villages, which are estimated at half a million by animal welfare groups. One thing that is certainly unusual here is that street cats in the big cities are looked after by many of the inhabitants. Bowls with water and dry food for them can be seen everywhere on the pavements and in house doorways. Many pet shops are involved in this too. The cats living on the streets make a substantial contribution to sales in the pet supplies sector, therefore. In parallel to this, the awareness of many people is increasing and cats are permitted to live in the home as members of the family.Feeding trendsAccording to Mars Petcare, good market momentum and above-average growth rates have been secured in the premium dry cat food, cat care and treats and moist cat food segments. The company admits, however, that tinned and tray cat food and tinned and dry dog food are showing a negative trend. This is also confirmed by last year's IRI data, in which Mars Petcare fared very poorly in the speciality retail trade in particular in the moist cat food segment.Let's take another look at Turkey. "Large quantities of cheap food products for cats are sold," says Müjde Coskun of the wholesaler DBM Turkey, but she adds that the sector is changing: "Many concerned pet owners are looking for real complete pet food." The market in Scandinavia and western Europe is much more developed. August Engel-Wolff, managing director of Bozita Germany, says: "Demand is increasing for high-quality products. People are also looking more closely at where the food comes from and thus its provenance is becoming more important." The customer values fresh, natural raw ingredients more than ever. And the use of fresh meat in both moist and dry food is very important.The Italian manufacturer Almo Nature takes a similar approach. "We attach great importance above all to manufacturing products from ingredients in a natural state that have not been subjected to any physical or chemical processes," explains Salima Touchal, marketing manager at Almo…