Mexico City.- With pet food prices rising, owners are turning to bulk purchases, the National Feed Manufacturers Council said.
Although the increase is no longer at an accelerated pace, the effects of inflation from previous years continue.
In 2024, the price of pet food has been increasing by less than 2 percent per year each month, however, between March 2022 and the same month in 2023, the monthly increase recorded was almost 9 percent, according to data from Inegi.
As a result, leftovers and home-prepared foods have lost market share to bulk pet food, which is the third most sold product of this type in small businesses, only after beans and rice, according to data from the National Alliance of Small Merchants (Anpec) as of April.
Rolando Contreras, a wholesale trade expert, told Conafab that pet food is one of the top 10 product categories marketed by grocery wholesalers in Mexico, with sales growth of more than 2 percent, according to data through May.
In Mexico, 62.4 percent of small businesses sell pet food, according to Anpec.
Conafab also reported that consumers prefer to stock up in small stores because of their proximity, and that they have migrated to lower-cost brands in the face of current economic uncertainty.
The dry pet food segment was valued at $1.32 billion in 2022, while the wet category reached $613.7 million in the same year, according to data from Mordor Intelligence.
“Faced with economic uncertainty and the need to cover basic needs such as food, housing, health and education, consumers are beginning to curb their purchases and are migrating from premium brands to lower-cost ones.
“They also prefer to stock up on traditional channels – small local stores – to replace the units that have run out in their pantry,” according to Conafab.
Dry or wet food covers 41 percent of the total calories consumed by pets.
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