According to data from the China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC), pet food imports still increase and expected to do so until 2025. Last year, Canadian pet food was the most popular with 47,895 metric tons (47%), followed by the US with 17,595 metric tons (20%) worth $114 million (€107M). The import amount from the rest of the world accounted for 97,560 metric tons.
The pet food imports doubled in the first two years of the COVID pandemic due to a reduction of import tariff from 15% to 4% as well as an increase of pet parents to purchase on online platforms. The numbers raised from 54,310 metric tons in 2019 to 106,672 in 2020.
From 2020 to 2021, the import numbers decreased by 8.5% due to an increase in transport costs and the onset of avian influenza in Europe.
The US shows large interest in Chinese pet food market. According to China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), in 2021, the ministry permitted 635 keeping units (SKUs) of imported pet foods of which 117 were for US pet foods. Lately, MARA again approved another 44 SKUs from the US.
Currently, 78 US facilities are registered with GACC compared to its main rival with only 9 facilities.
Next to foreign growth, China’s national pet food production continously rises too. The China Feed Industry Association registered a production of 1.13 million tons of pet food in 2021, which marks an increase of 17.3% to the previous year.
Regarding latest data from Euromonitor, China’s pet food market experienced immense growth: from $719 million (€673M) in 2010 to $6.72 billion (€6.29B) in 2020. According to the research company’s expertise, the market will rise from $8.23 billion (€7.71B) in 2021 to $16.77 billion (€15.7B) 2025. Additionally it says, that the cat population will increase 6.3% to 101 million in 2025 while the dog population will grow to 100 million (2%).
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