By Brian Hutchins
Pet Product News International

The worldwide market for pet food and pet supplies has grown about 3 percent annually since 1998 to about 44 billion Euro ($56 billion), according to Eric Combelles, an analyst with research firm Euromonitor International.

The firm projects the market will continue to grow, hitting 51 billion Euro ($65 billion) in 2009.

Factors driving the market include increasing pet ownership (especially among growing demographics such as singles and seniors), the humanization of pets, a continual upgrading of quality (whether adopting super-premium foods in developed countries or switching from table scraps to processed pet food in developing countries) and more effective marketing programs, Combelles said.

A future driver could be mega brands, such as Nike or Adidas entering the pet market, he said.

Most significantly, five manufacturers account for about half that market.

Combelles unveiled the latest statistics at Interzoo in Nuremberg, Germany, in May.
Broken regionally, North America accounted for about $17 billion Euro ($21.8 billion) in 2005 and will account for about 19 billion Euro ($24.3 billion) by 2009, followed by Western Europe (16 billion Euro in 2005, 18 billion Euro in 2009), Asia Pacific (5 billion Euro in 2005, 6 billion by 2009) and Latin America (3 billion Euro in 2005, 4 billion Euro in 2009).

Combelles and Euromonitor expect Eastern Europe to experience fast growth to sales of 2 billion Euro ($2.6 billion) by 2009, twice its current size.

Pet superstores saw their market share increase from 10.8 percent in 1998 to 12.9 percent in 2005, while pet shops saw their share fall from 19.6 percent to 19 percent on a global basis.

Supermarket chains had the greatest market share at 40.5 percent in 2005, down from 41.2 in 1998, largely due to growth of pet superstores.