‘Mentality shift’ drives spending on pets
Mainlanders, Hongkongers splashing more cash on animals, reports show
The pet market on the mainland has seen steady growth in recent years, driven by a shift in “lifestyles and mentality” among pet owners, while Hongkongers too are more willing to increase their spending on the health and well-being of their animal friends, analysts have said.
On the mainland, even as economic challenges weighed on discretionary consumption, “good growth” was expected in the pet sector, said Sam Sun, partner at Alto Vera Equity Partners, a Beijing-based buyout fund focused on the consumer and industrial sectors.
“The growth is driven by a combination of lifestyle and mentality changes, where an increasing number of young mainlanders, deterred by the high costs of forming families, are choosing to raise pets as companions and treating them as family members [instead],” he said.
And this shifting trend was leading to increased spending not just on pet food, but also pet health, apparel and accessories, Sun said.
The mainland’s pet industry recorded total sales of US$13.6 billion last year, close to a 100 per cent increase since 2018, according to reports published separately by industry bodies such as the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association and Euromonitor.
This comes despite slowing growth momentum in the sector, which was due in part to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on discretionary spending. Last year, mainland pet owners spent an average of 2,875 yuan (HK$3,100) per year on their dogs and 1,870 yuan on their cats, marking declines of 0.2 per cent and 0.75 per cent, respectively, compared to 2022 levels.
“That the pet industry has continued booming despite persisting confidence weakness suggests that pet owners are invested in ensuring the life quality of their pets, and are willing to spend as necessary,” said Alfredo Montufar-Helu, head of the China Centre for Economics and Business at The Conference Board, a non-profit think tank.
Pet food dominated owners’ spending with a 52.3 per cent share, while medical products and services, including medication, physical examinations and vaccines, account for 28.5 per cent, the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association’s report shows.
The mainland’s pet economy is expected to reach 81.1 billion yuan in sales next year, according to estimates by iiMedia Research.
There has been a shift in mentality in Hong Kong as well.
The city’s pet industry has also seen steady growth over the past few years, with animal owners shelling out close to HK$700,000 on average on care items and services during their pets’ lifetime, making them one of the top spenders in this category in AsiaPacific, according to insurer OneDegree.
OneDegree commissioned Ipsos, a market research firm, to survey 526 pet owners in Hong Kong and found that they spent an average of HK$680,000 raising their animal friends.
The top spending categories were pet food and snacks, accounting for 19.4 per cent of the total, followed by veterinary visits and medication, which accounted for 17.2 per cent, and health check-ups and dental care, which accounted for 9.8 per cent.
“Uninvolved or permissive [pet] parenting are no longer the norm for pet owners,” said Emily Chow, OneDegree’s deputy chief executive. “They highly value daily care, diet and their pets’ well-being and health.”
Owning pets had become more popular in Hong Kong over the past five years, Statista said.