There’s nothing like a pandemic to highlight the globalization of the pet food market, along with the overall economy. Various regions depend on others for raw materials, finished products and many other elements crucial to keeping pet food flowing to all those hungry pets around the world; and some markets depend on others to buy their raw materials and finished products, keeping business flowing.

For example, Western Europe and Asia Pacific import a large amount of agricultural materials, including pet food ingredients like cereals/grains, meat and animal fats/meals and related products. The heavy reliance on such imports puts those regions at some risk.

Pet food imports and exports affected, too

Similar to the agricultural import situation, some regions or countries, including in those same regions of Western Europe and Asia Pacific, are more dependent on finished pet food product imports.

On the other hand, markets like France, the U.S. and China dominate with pet food exports, and that can pose a risk in terms of being able to get products into other markets during a pandemic and in times of other potential supply chain disruptions, such as during trade disputes.

How e-commerce factors into the global pet food market

For the more import-reliant markets in Western Europe, pet food shortages became an issue during the height of the pandemic, even in the surging e-commerce channel. Pet owners ordering their pet food online in other markets experienced delays in receiving the orders, at least those shipped to their homes from e-commerce retailers like Chewy in the U.S., Zooplus in Europe and Amazon globally. Several large retailers have experienced triple-digit growth for these types of orders。

New model, hope for smaller pet retailers?

This new guard also offers an opportunity for pet and other brick-and-mortar (BAM) retailers, which were already losing business to the e-commerce surge; that has accelerated during the pandemic. However, like larger, general retailers, pet stores may see hope on the horizon from click and collect as well as home delivery.

What the future may hold for pet food retail

For pet food companies, pet specialty retailers are often a key ally, particularly for smaller, more specialized brands – making it even more important for those retailers to stay in business and continue to make sales in multiple channels and ways.