Strong growth potential

Southeast Asia, with a population of more than 650 mio, has been considered an important growth market for years. Although this does not apply to the entire region, countries such as Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia had been experiencing strong economic growth until the outbreak of Covid-19. Until the pandemic hit: it affected the region hard, even though the pet industry there achieved record growth.

Since the pandemic has passed, most Southeast Asian countries have quickly recovered economically and are expected to experience strong growth again in the coming years. The region is home to megacities such as Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, which are characterised by rising disposable income, changing lifestyles and increasing pet ownership rates. Many people in the conurbations in and around these cities live with pets. As a result, the number of dogs, cats and other animal family members in these countries is growing rapidly from year to year.

With 277 mio inhabitants, Indonesia is the largest country in Southeast Asia and also the fourth largest country in the world in terms of population (see also report in PET worldwide 3/2024). Many market research institutes are closely monitoring the development of the pet market there. However, their market data differs greatly in some details. They agree, however, that the Indonesian pet market has strong growth potential. Mordor Intelligence, a US market intelligence and advisory firm, estimates the sales volume of the Indonesian pet market at 1.61 bn dollars in 2024. The market researchers expect the market to achieve an average sales growth of almost 15 per cent in the coming years and to reach a sales volume of 3.19 bn dollars in 2029.

Mordor Intelligence expects the cat food and pet treat categories in particular to see particularly high average annual growth rates of 18.75 per cent and 18.04 per cent respectively between 2023 and 2029. This optimistic view of the future is based on a rapidly growing pet population, which grew by 75.7 per cent between 2017 and 2022. According to Mordor Intelligence, the number of cats in Indonesia in particular is increasing rapidly. In 2022, there were 5.1 mio cats in the country. Cats make up 65.4 per cent of all pets in Indonesia. The reasons for the great popularity of cats are their low maintenance…