Demand key take aways for strategy

Trends in petfood are strongly mirroring trends in human food.

 Dry foods dominate the petfood market, seen as more convenient and logistically easier but are not exported.

Petfood comprises 1.4% of this, reflecting New Zealand’s low penetration in the global market and almost no presence in the dry category (Tux baked biscuits have a large share in New Zealand but are not exported and Addiction dry kibble is produced solely for the export market). 

Petfood exports can be separated into two main areas, the first being ingredients consisting of either frozen MDM (mechanically deboned meat) or MBM (meat and bone meal). Ingredients are exported to large multinational corporations who then manufacture the finished retail ready petfood. Our advantage in this space is in having unique species such as lamb and deer. Advantages are also in having high food safety standards/regulations and free range stock. 

In retail ready petfood products, multiple opportunities exist in the super premium categories of cat and dog food and treats.

For medium sized companies, the biggest opportunity is in finding in-market partners to enhance sales and distribution.

 Petfood is an attractive market with strong fundamentals

– Petfood is a growing global market

– Petfood is strongly on trend with changing global consumer behaviour

– Petfood is a profitable industry, particularly in the growing super-premium (cat and dog) sector – Petfood is attracting investment from both global multinational companies and private equity