Pet food sector grows in Thailand as the ‘pet humanisation’ trend rises
At Worldpanel, we’ve been observing the pet food market for over a decade. During that time the market has grown strongly across many dimensions, gaining more value, more buyers, and more players. This has been driven by a trend called ‘pet humanisation’: people nowadays tend to have fewer children, instead choosing to have a pet like a dog or cat. This is a trend not only in Thailand, where the birth rate is declining, but all around the world.
Pet humanisation is when an owner considers their pet to be a family member, or – in Asia and Thailand – a kid. These households demonstrate quite similar behaviours to those with children, buying the best products because they want to raise them well. This makes the pet food sector a potentially promising expansion opportunity for major brands – especially those in the food industry.
Simple: they already have the capability to produce food products. They also have by-products left over from manufacturing human food which they can use for pet food; this has the added benefit of supporting sustainability and CSR (corporate social responsibility) programmes.
To understand the market landscape and the opportunity for brands to enter the pet food market, it’s essential to consider four key questions: Who are the buyers? What is the market opportunity? What do people buy? and Where do they buy?
