South African Pet care market and some other statistics.

Mass Market Consumers Remain Elusive in South African Pet CareAnalyst Insight by Paula Flores, Head of Pet Care, Euromonitor International

South Africa may be by far the largest pet care market in the Middle East and Africa, but it remains undeveloped in comparison with many other emerging markets, particularly Latin American ones. While affluent consumers represent a lucrative niche segment for premium brands, the economy segment remains largely undeveloped, with less affluent owners still overwhelmingly feeding their pets table scraps/leftovers.

Is owning a dog un-African?

During December 2012, South African President Jacob Zuma courted controversy by arguing that South Africans should not have pet dogs. He maintained that spending money on buying a dog, taking it to the vet and walking it “belonged to white culture and was not the African way.”

Predictably, these comments were widely discussed on social media in South Africa. “Zuma comments cause canine chaos” one newspaper headline read. One user tweeted: “Zuma says owning dogs is un-African. Unlike those old African traditions of driving German cars, wearing Italian suits and drinking Irish whiskey.” Another wrote: “Zuma needs a history check, as the Africanis breed of dog has been the companion of Southern Africa’s San Bushmen since 800AD.”

A number of people tweeted an old photograph of former president Nelson Mandela with a canine companion. Commenting on the website www.iol.co.za, one dog lover said: “I'm black & I love my dog. He’s part of my family. We’ve always had dogs in my family. Can’t imagine life without them.”

In 2012, 20% of households owned a dog, a figure that has been fairly stable over recent years. 10% had a cat.

Most dogs are not fed prepared food, but this is gradually changing. The proportion of calories consumed by pet dogs accounted for by prepared products rose from 24% to 27% between 2007 and 2012. However, cats tend to be much more pampered (and are much more likely to be perceived as companion animals, or even ersatz family members) than dogs, many of which are still regarded in overwhelmingly functional terms (as guard dogs, for example) by their owners. The proportion of calories consumed by pet cats accounted for by prepared products rose from 65% to 67% between 2007 and 2012.

This has helped to drive steady growth in pet care sales over recent years: Having fallen sharply (by 4%) in 2008 due to a combination of rising prices and weak economic growth, constant value pet care sales stabilised in 2009 and have expanded by at least 3% per annum since then. By 2012, the market was worth US$668 million

Colgate-Palmolive and Mars are by far the most popular manufacturers of premium dog and cat food, accounting for 33% and 31% of value sales, respectively, in 2011.

Affluent consumers who purchase premium pet food are also the main buyers of pet products, with value sales outperforming the wider pet care market, recording a real CAGR increase of 3% between 2007 and 2012. Sales of pet products were worth US$44.2 million in 2012, having proved virtually recession proof during 2008 and 2009.

The South African pet care market is forecast to exhibit a real CAGR increase of 2% during the period 2012-2017 to US$744 million. This will mainly be driven by owners swapping table scraps/leftovers for economy and mid-priced prepared products and some affluent consumers trading up to super-premium brands, such as organic or all-natural products. The relatively small size of the country’s middle class will remain the main impediment to more rapid growth.

WSPA 2007 SA had 7 440 000 dogs and 2 000 000 cats

Australia 3 484 000 dogs and 2 450 000 cats

In a crude attempt to estimate global dog and cat figures, the average pet population as a percentage of the human

population was calculated. These figures varied greatly with the most obvious connecting factor being economic

status.

The World Bank Economic Status figures categorise each country into one of four categories:

1 = low economy

2 = low mid economy

3 = high mid economy

4 = high economy

Taking a random sample of countries from each economic status the following averages were obtained:

Crude pet pop as % human pop in EC 1/2/3 = 8%

Crude dog pop as % human pop in EC 1/2/3 = 4.8%

Crude pet pop as % of human pop in EC 4 = 25%

Crude dog pop as % of human pop in EC 4 = 15%

Total pets across globe using this estimation = 704 M

Total dogs across globe using this estimation = 432 M

Total cats across the globe using this estimation = 272 M

Population change over the last 5 years (based on information from 5

10% of SA dogs routinely vaccinated

Country No. of practicing SA/mixed vets Total pets  Pets per vet

Australia 6000 5935000 990

Cook Islands 1 5000 5000

New Zealand 1750 1745000 1000

Papua New Guinea 5 6000000 1200000

Samoa 10 1100000 110000