The suppliers in the market

In September, Vitakraft unveiled the Vita-Cube high-bay warehouse in a major online event watched by 148 participants. The warehouse was complete in approximately 18 months and is 37 metres high, accommodating around 44 000 pallet bays. A fully digitalised system moves the pallets around on 25 automated shuttle trains over a rail system 475 metres long.

The market research company Euromonitor International expects that the price of dog and cat food will rise globally by at least 4 per cent per year in the next few years. Jared Koerten, who is responsible for the pet supplies sector at the company, made this comment in a webinar reported on in several media channels.

Start-ups performed well last year. One of them was Petbuddy from Scandinavia. With its naturally produced pet food, the company aims to adopt an innovative, unconventional and customer-focused approach to the pet supplies market.

The Zolux Group of France presented Hopi by Saint Bernard, a new brand for supermarkets and hypermarkets. In particular, the company emphasises the sustainability of the new brand, pointing to the reduced ecological footprint of its product development. An assortment of food products for wild birds has been chosen to launch the range.

The coronavirus crisis has caused significant disruption to the market for pet food ingred­ients. Many raw materials have become more expensive, driving up the price of pet food in turn. In the pet supplies sector, the result has been persistent supply shortages that are not restricted to individual countries but affect the entire world. Freight rates also increased, not by 10 or 20 per cent, but by up to 500 per cent, especially with regard to shipments from China, the country from which many pet product companies source their goods.

The European Pet Food Federation (Fediaf) released its annual overview of the pet population and pet market in Europe. A staggering 88 mio households (38 per cent) benefit from pet ownership and the pet food industry has grown 2.8 per cent and is now worth 21.8 bn euros, said the association in its report. Pets have also been rewarded for their companionship throughout the pandemic with 21.2 bn spent on…