The Pet Food Industry in Mexico 2021: Trends, forecasts and stats

In this article we review the Pet Food industry in Mexico and tell you about its current situation and future predictions. In food consumption, Latin America ranks second in the world, reaching a sales amount that exceeds 10,847 million dollars. The only region that surpasses it is North America, with $ 23,244 million in annual sales.

In 2018, the global pet food market was valued at $ 87.08 billion, with a CAGR of 5.4%. The following year, in 2019, it was reaffirmed that North America is the largest geographic segment of the market, with a share of around 39.2% in a global comparison. This means that most of the industry's income is generated in the United States; in 2019, they reached 29,876 million dollars.

North America, the largest market for pet food, is followed by Western Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The pet population in all of these regions is growing at a very rapid rate.

Despite the economic crisis caused by COVID-19, the pet food industry is one of the privileged  that has had a good performance, and even growth, during the last year.
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Regarding the pet industry in Mexico, we can affirm that the country has also experienced exponential growth, sustained mainly in the last 10 years. This is mainly due to the increase in awareness about the care of companion animals beyond the classic nutritional aspect.

This growing global trend of "humanization" of Pets has reached a new level in Mexico, where it is possible to find even restaurants where dogs are more than welcome: they are, in fact, the main diners.

From a socio-economic point of view, the changing economic and social situation of the country is the factor that most drives the pet food market. A clear example is the rapid growth of the middle class, of approximately 40,000,000 inhabitants, which, together, along with the increase in urbanization, makes the market grow exponentially. In addition, the preference for having fewer children also leads to a greater appeal in having a Pet.

Pet Food in Mexico, in numbers

Mexico is the second largest country regarding domestic dogs in the world. The first place is Argentina, and the third is Brazil.

• It is estimated that in Mexico there are 27 million dogs; 35% of them eat balanced feed; In the case of cats, which are about 8 million, 19% of the total are fed balanced food. This has encouraged the development and manufacture of organic and premium food. The cost of this type of food is estimated to be at least 20% higher than the average market price.
• In 2017, dog food sales grew by 7% in value and 8% in volume, which is equal to 30.5 billion Mexican pesos and 892,073 tons of product respectively.
• Wet food was the one that saw the highest growth in value in 2017 (9%).
• During that same year, the consumption of food for domestic animals in the country was almost 954,000 tons, which meant an increase of 6.5% with respect to 2015. This indicator corresponds especially to the increase in awareness of the importance of of the quality of the food and its nutritional value.
• In Mexico there are more pets than children under 9 years of age, who barely reach 23 million (according to INEGI). In fact, 80% of the Mexican population owns at least one pet, with 64% opting for dogs.
• In 2017, Mexico had a turnover of 2 thousand 78 million dollars in pet food, which is 112% more than the 980 million of the item of baby food, according to data from Euromonitor International.
• By 2019, the market was valued at 2,343 million dollars.
• Currently, the baby-dog boom has far exceeded, doubling, the income of the baby food industry.
• The main brands in the Mexican market are Pedigree and Whiskas, from Mars; Nestle's Purina Dog Chow; Winner, from Neovia; Pal, from Mars; Nupec, of New Technologies in Food; Purina Pro Plan and Purina Champion, from Nestlé; Perfect Fit, by Mars, and Mainstay, by Nestlé.
• The highest sales come from major retail chains such as Walmart, Sams, Soriana and Costco.

Forecasts for the Pet Food market in Mexico

As we have seen, the pet industry is growing at an accelerated rate in Mexico. As for the global pet food market, it is estimated that it will experience growth of up to 98 billion dollars within the next 5 years, towards 2024. This is mainly due to the increase in pet owners around the world.

In fact, the market value is expected to increase to $ 2.9 billion by 2023, growing annually by 6.2% (CAGR 2019-2023) according to Statista. This increase corresponds, to a large extent, to the increase in the acquisition or adoption of pets, which, in turn, corresponds to an improvement in the purchasing power of the middle class. It is expected that, as in recent years, wet food will show the greatest increase in consumption, reaching for the same year an average annual growth of 5% and 8% in volume, which translates into 41.4 one billion Mexican pesos and 1.4 million tons respectively.

The pet food market of the whole LATAM region is expected to reach 11.69 billion dollars by 2024. The Pet Food Industry is growing rapidly, in Mexico and around the world, due to various factors. One of them, as we have seen, is the increase in the purchasing power of households and the late decision to have children. Another trigger for the increase is the reduction in the mortality rate of pets, given the increased awareness of their general and nutritional well-being.

Mexican companies must develop a great vision and execution of their businesses if they want to maintain and grow in a sector that attracts, due to its forecasts, more and more investments and companies willing to innovate and deliver to consumers what they want to feed , take care of and pamper your Pets.

By: All Pet Food