China to spend more than $7 billion a year on pets by 2022

Almaty. December 25. Silkroadnews - The Chinese citizens intend to spend more than $7 billion a year on their pets by 2022, according to the Straits Times.
“Chinese shoppers are set to spend 46.3 billion yuan (~$7.1 billion) on their pets by 2022, up from 17.5 billion yuan this year as the market grows at around an annual 20 per cent,” the report said.
And although this year the market of pet goods in the U.S. was much bigger (this year the sales amounted to $44.4 billion), it grows only 2% per year.
“The surge in Chinese demand is not only great news for global pet food behemoths such as Mars and Nestle, but also rapidly growing Chinese pet food and product companies, as well as entrepreneurs setting up everything from dog salons for grooming to fancy pet hotels,” the publication says.
“There is huge growth potential in the Chinese market,” the agency quoted Liu Yonghao, the chairman of the Chinese company New Hope Group, noting that young people develop especially closer bonds with their pets. “They are willing to spend lots of money on the pets because they have become like part of the family,” he said.
New Hope Group joined the consortium, which includes Singapore’s Temasek state-owned fund and private equity company Hosen Capital, which has just completed a $1 billion deal to purchase the Australian pet food producer Real Pet Food to attract the firm’s brands to China.
The growing popularity of pets turns China into a magnet for local companies and world producers. The boom in the market of pet products boosts the import and development of local businesses. Among the Chinese companies that are now challenging the global giants there are Shanghai Bridge Petcare, Sunsun Group and Navarch. And Yantai China Pet Foods shares rose almost 60% on the stock exchange.