German pet product market continues to grow, but slowly

The market for pet products grew slightly last year by comparison with 2009, increasing by 0.8 per cent to € 3.707 bn. Sales growth in the previous year was 2.2 per cent. Sales in the pet food market surpassed those of 2009 by 0.8 per cent, rising to € 2.777 bn, while sales of pet requisites and accessories were up by 0.7 per cent to € 930 mio. The strongest growth in 2010 was in the cat food market, which was the biggest single segment with sales of € 1.435 bn (+2.9 per cent). Total sales of dog food amounted to € 1.102 bn in 2010, a slight increase of 0.1 per cent over the previous year. Sales of small animal food (€ 127 mio, -4.5 per cent; 2009: +0.8 per cent), food for caged birds (€ 53 mio, -7 per cent; 2009: -3.4 per cent) and fish food (€ 60 mio, -11.6 per cent; 2009: -2.9 per cent) declined in 2010.