Pet food persist as sales grow

SPRINGTON, Australia - July 18, 2022 - PRLog -- Pet food and pet product supply and transportation issues stemming from the pandemic are likely to continue throughout 2021 and into the first part of 2022, said Steve King, president and CEO of the American Pet Products Association (APPA), even as the U.S. pet care market has experienced notable growth that will also carry through this year.

Presenting a "state of the industry keynote" during Global Pet Expo (GPE) Digital Access 2021, King explained reasons for the disruptions, beginning with increased, and changing, consumer demand for pet foods and other pet products. After the initial spike in sales in March 2020 as pet owners stocked up during pandemic lockdowns—King's co-presenter, Celeste Powers, president of the Pet Industry Distributors Association, called this "emotional stockpiling"—there was an inevitable decline. But then pet food and pet care sales rebounded as owners practiced "thoughtful stockpiling" later in 2020 and as more people added pets to their households.

As a result, the latest APPA data on the total U.S. pet market showed growth of 6.7% in 2020, reaching US$103.billion for the year—the first time sales have ever topped US$100 billion, King noted. One growth driver was pet food, which increased 9.7%, hitting US$42 billion.

Much of the growth also came from e-commerce. In separate GPE presentations, David Sprinkle, publisher and research director at Packaged Facts, said e-commerce accounted for 30% of the overall U.S. pet care market, up from 24% in 2019. Specific to pet food, Brad Boldridge, director of neighborhood pet retail for Nielsen, said U.S. pet owners spent 46% more on pet food online in 2020 vs. 2019.

Increased demand and pandemic disrupted supply chains
Though positive news, this healthy growth, especially in e-commerce, had a significant impact on supply chains in the pet industry, Powers and King said, leading to some product and raw material shortages that continue today. Initially, domestic product manufacturers had difficulty increasing or shifting production quickly enough, according to King. "Production forecasting is based on the historical ebb and flow of business over the course of the year, and COVID really disrupted those patterns."

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