The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the businesses around the globe. However, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector has been registering growth during the pandemic. In-line with this, the Asia Pacific (APAC) pet care market has also shown resilience and is set to perform strongly in 2021 with double digit value growth. Pet owners in the region have become more inclined towards ready-made pet food recently as they have less time to make homemade food for their pet companions, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The positive development of the sector will be underpinned by the continuous growth in pet population, especially dogs and the pet humanization trend, well backed by the rising disposable incomes.

For instance, India alone has witnessed a strong increase in dog population tripling from over 3 million to over 10 million in the past decade. Pet ownership is rising with the growing number of nuclear families in urban areas, as more people are getting pets and rising income is allowing pet owners to trade up to higher quality and premium pet care products, thus letting the pet care industry to flourish in the region.

Adarsh Raj, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The APAC pet care market was valued at around US$14bn in 2020 wherein pet food priced at mid and lower end accounted for higher portion of value and volume sales as there is significant diversity and disparity in buying patterns of the region, especially in countries like China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea and India.”

Countries like Singapore and South Korea have shown higher inclination for premium pet food brands, whereas pet parents in India and Thailand have preferred mid and low-priced pet food. Besides, the penetration of branded pet food is significantly low compared with the US and western European countries, thus offering attractive market opportunity for companies like Mars, Nestle and Hill’s International.

According to GlobalData’s latest COVID-19 recovery survey, around *40% pet owners said that they were making a shift towards middle of the price range due to pandemic, followed by over **20% of the pet owners choosing to buy pet products positioned at the lower end of the price range.

Adarsh concludes: “There is a shift from lower-end to mid-range pet food among the APAC pet parents as they are watchful of what their pets are eating. As a result, pet food products with GMO free and health benefits claims might see increased demand in the next five years, in-line with global trend. Pet food manufacturers should pay close attention to these developments and add such products in their existing product portfolio to bolster revenues.”

* and ** data taken from GlobalData Coronavirus (COVID-19) Recovery Tracker Survey (June 10-14, 2020) with 5830 respondents