China Daily Global Edition (USA)
PET ECONOMY BOOMS As the Chinese seek more healthy and happy lives, they are willing to spend more on their furry friends
SHANGHAI — Cat owner Xiao Wanqing packs a big suitcase with imported cat food and toys at an international pet fair in Shanghai, and instructs a courier to deliver it to her home.
The 21st Pet Fair Asia, which ended in late August, received more than 140,000 visitors over its closing weekend.
And many visitors like Xiao came bringing big suitcases to buy imported pet products.
Xiao tends to trust the quality of imported cat food, as she says “big foreign pet food suppliers are more established and have good reputations”.
More than 1,300 exhibitors set up booths in the 140,000square-meter exhibition hall.
“My dog has a weak stomach, which food do you recommend,” asks Zhang Ran, a middle-aged woman from Shanghai at Royal Canin’s booth.
Then, based on the advice offered by Li Xi, the company’s vet, Zhang orders 6 kilograms of digestive dog food for her Bichon Frise.
Zhang says that when she got her dog eight years ago, she knew only of two different types of dog food, one for puppies and one for adult dogs.
But now, there are more choices on the market, and she is keen to learn about the different types of food for different dog breeds.
Speaking about the choices available now, Li says: “China’s pet food market is now seeing more products to cope with the rising demand of middle-class pet owners.”
For instance, the company he works for has more than a dozen prescription dog foods for the China market, aiming to help dogs with illnesses like liver or intestinal problems.
As the Chinese seek more healthy and happy lives, they are willing to spend more on their furry friends. And domestic pet food makers are catching up with the trend, says Zhao Haiming, general manager of Pure & Natural, a Chinese pet food brand.
“Our market research finds pet owners in China are now more well-informed about their pets’ health, and closely check the ingredients and nutritional elements before buying pet food,” says Zhao. “So, we are developing new products to keep up with consumer needs.”
According to the Pet Industry White Paper 2018 published by goumin.com, a Chinese online pet forum, Chinese dog and cat owners are expected to spend over 5,000 yuan (about $740) per pet in 2018, an increase of 15 percent from last year. And the value of China’s dog and cat market last year was more than 170 billion yuan.
Xiao says that in addition to cat food, raising her pet involves other expenses like grooming, vaccines and medical treatment. The total expenditure for her cat is about 10,000 yuan a year.
American company Litter Robot brought an auto-cleaning litter box to the fair, which reduces the frequency of cleaning a litter box to once every few weeks.
The company’s sales team says more than 200 litter boxes are sold via Chinese e-commerce platforms every month, with each one costing over 5,000 yuan.
The World Cat Show recognized by the Cat Fanciers’ Association, a global organization for pedigree cats, was also held during the fair.
Qian Zheng, director of the cat zone of Pet Fair Asia, says over 200 pure-bred cats were brought to the show.
Qian, who is also a professional breeder of Persian cats, says that nowadays it is quite easy to contact professional breeders through social media as opposed to 10 years ago.
Speaking about her experiences, Qian, who bought her first Persian cat from a foreign breeder via e-mail, says: “At that time, no foreign breeder was willing to sell pure-bred kittens to a Chinese buyer. They didn’t believe that we could look after cats properly, and rumors about Chinese eating cats certainly didn’t help.”
Describing what she went through to get her first Persian cat, Qian says she had to work hard to convince the breeder that there was no way she would spend thousands of dollars to buy a cat and not treat it well.
Now, Qian’s Persian cats have won first place in the category at the CFA cat show for two consecutive years.
Speaking about how Persian cats have become popular in the country, she says: “Few Chinese pet owners attended the CFA cat show before. But now, new faces and new kittens from China appear every year.”
She says she owns between 20 and 30 Persian cats, and that these fluffy little angels cost her between 600,000 and 700,000 yuan a year.
According to research by the China Agricultural University, the pet industry develops rapidly when a country’s GDP per capita reaches between $3,000 and $5,000.
China’s GDP per capita was about $8,800 last year.
The Pet Fair Asia event, which moved to Shanghai from Hong Kong in 1999, has grown exponentially, from a 15,000-square-meter space at the Shanghai Mart in 2003, to a whopping 140,000 square meters at the Shanghai New International Expo Center this year.