BEN COTTENIE, MYRIAM SNAET
Beneo

Abstract

Trends in consumer behaviour heavily influence those in new product development in the pet sector. With pet product innovation often following human trends Myriam Snaet, Head of Market Intelligence & Consumer Insights, and Ben Cottenie, Country Manager Animal Nutrition at BENEO explore the increasing focus on health and wellness and how this trend is being addressed within functional pet food nutrition ingredients.

Pet food and pet care are big business globally, in fact pet products represented $87.2bn in global spending in 2016 according to GlobalData (1) market data. The top five pet products markets by total value are the US ($27.1bn), the UK ($4.7bn), Germany ($4.6bn), France ($4.1bn) and Japan ($3.9bn). Although these are established markets, the regions showing the greatest annual growth are further afield. Poland tops the growth prediction charts with +7.0% CAGR (2016-2021), closely followed by Thailand (+6.6%), China (+5.8%), Malaysia (+5.4%) and the Czech Republic (+5.2%) (2).

Key segments within the pet product market that are showing growth potential over the coming years include the largest two areas: dog and cat care (+2.9% and +2.2% respectively), as well as those of fish, bird and rodent care. With such a healthy outlook for pet food and care, it is interesting to note the particular trends that are currently influencing new product development.

GLOBAL PET FOOD TRENDS

The search for quality - Pet care is a highly emotive subject and many consider their pets to be a part of the family. With this in mind, m ...