Dry food popular in Italy

The market for dog and cat food in Italy grew by 5.9 per cent last year compared with 2002, with sales in both segments increasing by the same amount. Above-average growth rates were observed in the segments of dry food for cats (12.9 per cent), dry dog food (7.3 per cent) and snacks (16.8 per cent). These figures were released by Information Resources Inc. (IRI) at a press conference to publicise Zoomark 2005 in Bologna. According to the statistics, sales of dry pet food increased both in pet shops and mass-market channels, while supermarkets and hypermarkets in particular notched up growth in the sales of snacks.