Sourcing in Thailand: a viable alternative

The pet food industry is not immune to global crises. This became evident once again during the latest edition of Interzoo in Nuremberg, where increasing raw material prices, production shortages and the lack of shipping containers were much-discussed topics on the show floor. In particular, pet food production shortages keep posing constraints in regard to the international expansion plans of European brands and manufacturers in 2022.

As a consequence, an increasing number of European companies are turning to Thailand, a country which is well-known within the international pet supplies industry for its pet food production. Long-standing manufacturing know-how, international quality standards, the availability of raw materials and geographical proximity to major Asian consumer markets are just some of the reasons why Thailand has managed to develop into the world’s fourth largest exporter of pet food in recent years.

The highest demand for private label pet food from Thailand in 2020 came from companies from the United States (total value of 1.6 bn dollars), followed by Japan (total value of 463 mio dollars), Italy (total value of 290 mio dollars) and Australia (total value of 106 mio dollars).

Andrea Terrile, export sales manager at Almo Nature Benefit in Italy, states with reference to sourcing from Thailand: “European pet food brands are increasingly experiencing limited production capacities. Thailand with its numerous OEM manufacturers certainly offers high-quality sourcing. I have been working with Thailand-based pet food factories for many years and have only had good experiences.”

The perfect opportunity to explore new sourcing options from Thailand will be at Pet Fair South-East Asia, the first fully B2B tradeshow for Southeast Asia’s pet industry organised for 26-28 October 2022 at the BITEC Exhibition Center in Bangkok. With all of Thailand’s leading pet food…