In the “Double Eleven” where people are more cautious in consumption, the pet economy is a track with outstanding performance. On November 1st, magic mirror data made statistics on the pre-sales of Tmall’s “Double Eleven” and found that the pre-sales in most industries have declined to varying degrees, while the pet-related market has seen a strong growth, with a 44% increase in pre-sales.
According to a data report released by China Merchants Securities on November 15, during the “Double Eleven” period this year, the sales of pet staple food reached 1.909 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 38%; cat and dog snacks also achieved rapid growth, and cat snack sales It reached 362 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.73%, and the sales of dog snacks reached 121 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.43%.
As early as 2018, the Forbes website pointed out in the article “Why Pet Care is One of the Most Recession-Resistant Industries” that people are replacing children with pets. This is half a joke and half a fact: People are giving birth to more and more children. Less, but the caring instinct is more satisfied in pets. Basic pet care has become a consumer necessity like food and electricity.
According to the “White Paper on China’s Pet Industry Trend Insight in 2022” released by JD.com, there will be 91.47 million pet-owning households in China in 2021, and it is expected that the number of pet-owning households will exceed 100 million in 2022.
The “2021 White Paper on China’s Pet Industry” issued by the Pet Industry Branch of the China Animal Husbandry Association and recognized by the industry as the most authoritative pointed out that in 2021, China’s urban dog and cat market will grow by 20.6% year-on-year, 8 percentage points higher than the total retail sales of consumer goods in 2021 .
Pets can help people relieve anxiety
While some industries have proven vulnerable to the recent economic downturn and record inflation, the pet consumer segment is an exception.
In August of this year, Wetney Joseph, chief financial officer of Zoetis, the world’s largest animal health company, said in a live broadcast, “If you look at the history of animal health, you will find that it has been proven to be recession-resistant. The demographic structure of pets tends to be millennials and Generation Z who pay more attention to the health of pets.” The
pet industry has a history of hundreds of years in the United States, and the proportion of households with pets has always remained above 60%, and it will make a historic breakthrough in 2020 70%.
The report released by RET China Commercial Real Estate Research Center in September this year pointed out that the two most influential economic fluctuation nodes experienced by the United States since this century are the financial crisis in 2008 and the new crown epidemic in 2020. After the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, the U.S. GDP growth rate dropped to -2.6% in 2009, but pet food spending in the same year still maintained a small increase; in 2020, due to the new crown epidemic, the U.S. GDP growth rate was -3.4%, but the national Pet consumption still increased by 7% year-on-year, and it has continued to grow around 2020.
In fact, since 2016, the growth rate of the US pet market has been higher than the growth rate of GDP per capita. Similarly, during the 10 years of economic downturn, the size of the Japanese pet market has not declined, and has always maintained a slight increase, increasing from 400 billion yen in 2010 to 500 billion yen in 2020.
Liu Lang, vice chairman of Xinruipeng Group, the largest pet medical chain organization in China, analyzed that with the development of material civilization, the connection between people is getting less and less, people’s mental state is becoming more and more fragile, and pets have become A part of them they can count on, maybe even the only part. “People will rely more on pets during anxious and difficult times.” He told China News Weekly.
On November 18 this year, Tianyuan Pet, a manufacturer of cat climbing frames and pet nest mats, landed on the GEM. This is the third domestic company in the pet economy field to be listed this year. Since 2022, despite facing multiple uncertainties such as the new crown epidemic and uncertain economic situation, from the financial report, many domestic pet companies have achieved significant growth in the first three quarters, with net profits of more than 30%.
In 2021, according to the “White Paper on China’s Pet Industry in 2021”, the size of China’s entire urban dog and cat market will reach 249 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.6%. According to the latest report released by the China Business Industry Research Institute, the scale of China’s pet consumption market in 2012 was only 33.7 billion yuan. Based on this calculation, the compound growth rate of China’s pet market industry will be 24.88% from 2012 to 2021.
The pet industry refers to all the industrial chains around pets, involving pet breeding and trading, and goods and services around pet consumption, including pet food, pet supplies, pet medical care and pet services. From the perspective of subdivided industries, in 2021, among the 249 billion yuan market size of China’s pet market, pet food, medical care, supplies and services accounted for 51.5%, 29.2%, 12.8% and 6.4% respectively.
From 2019 to 2021, the number of pet food and supplies brands in China will surge by 34%. In terms of pet medical care, according to the “Pet Industry Series Research Report” released by Ping An Securities in September 2021, from 2017 to 2021, there will be nearly 900 pet hospitals registered in China every year.
As pets become more and more companions and family members of human beings, the related industry chain is still developing, such as pet clothing, pet “behind affairs” services, etc. According to the data from Tianyancha, there are nearly 9,000 companies in China whose business scope covers pet funerals, pet funerals, and animal harmless treatment. Among them, the number of new companies will exceed 2,000 in 2021, with an annual registration growth rate of 101.43% .
China’s pet market is far from mature
Lin Degui, a professor at the School of Veterinary Medicine of China Agricultural University and chairman of the Small Animal Medicine Branch of the China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Association, told China News Weekly that China’s pet industry sprouted in the late 1980s and gradually entered the country with the opening up to the outside world. After 2000 Only then did companion animals enter more families, and socially diverse life patterns emerged.
The China Small Animal Protection Association started preparations in 1988 and was formally established in 1992. At the same time, in 1993, Mars, the world’s largest pet food company, set up its first pet food factory in Chaoyang District, Beijing, and then Royal, Nestle Purina and other overseas international pet brands gradually entered China, promoting scientific pet care. ideas and products. From 2001 to 2009, the domestic pet industry developed initially, and some local companies began to rise; in 2005, the Small Animal Medicine Branch of the Chinese Society of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine was established, and the small animal medical industry in China developed rapidly.
2015 is a crucial year for the development of the domestic pet industry. This year, Hillhouse Capital, an important investor in this industry, began to lay out the ecological chain of the pet industry, and two years later established the Hillhouse Group, a comprehensive platform focusing on the pet industry, covering pet medical services, retail, food supplies and other diversified businesses.
