Steadily growing

Argentina’s economy has been in a state of disarray for many years. The country has experienced repeated recessions, hyperinflation, and sovereign debt defaults. However, the election of President Javier Milei in December 2023 has contributed to improving the country’s economic situation. Inflation has fallen and the peso has strengthened against the dollar. This has led to growth in most sectors of the economy, including the pet food industry.

According to data from the Argentine Chamber of Animal Nutrition and Pet Companies (CAENA), the industry is currently valued at 1.5m dollars, and is still growing. According to a Kantar study, eight out of ten Argentinians have a pet at home and allocate 90% of their budget to pet food.

With an annual production of one million tonnes of pet food, Argentina is currently a significant player on the international stage, occupying 14th place in the global market. This figure reflects not only the country’s productive capacity, but also growth in domestic demand. The latter is mainly driven by the 493,676 dogs and 368,176 cats in Buenos Aires alone.

Argentina also has the highest pet ownership rate in the region, with 78% of households having at least one pet. According to Statista, Argentina also leads Latin America in terms of per capita pet food consumption, with an average of 49.1 kilo­grams consumed per person.

CAENA data shows that the sector offers more than 6,000 registered products. Of these, 80% are for dogs and 20% for cats. The best-known pet food brands in the country include multinationals such as Mars and Nestlé’s Purina. According to various reports, Purina is the market leader in Argentina and has a production facility in Santo Tomé, Santa Fe. This plant is a major production base for many leading local brands, including Pro Plan, Excellent, Purina One, Dog Chow and Cat Chow. Among the leading domestic players are companies such as Baires, the owner of Old Prince, Vitalcan, Kongo, Criadores Company and Voraz.

In general, there are more than 1,400 companies in the sector. Of these, 70% are small and medium-sized enterprises, while 30% are large companies. According to the Argentinian business newspaper Ambito, most of these companies are located in the central region of the country, near the main grain production areas, which facilitates access to raw materials.

Juan Pablo Ravazzano, president of the CAENA, said that the growth of the market is based not only on the increase in pet ownership…