2' min read
2' min read
It is no longer registering the double-digit growth of the post-Covid years, but the Italian pet care market continues to beat the trend in packaged consumer goods (Lcc) in terms of dynamism. This is highlighted by the 18th Assalco Report presented yesterday at BolognaFiere by Circana, on the opening day of Zoomark: pet care marked +4.1% in value last year, against +2.1% for FMCG, and in the first months of 2025 the trend is confirmed, with +2% in value in pet care, against +1.8%.
What drives the segment are prices (+2.8% in 2024) and not volumes (+1.3%), "but it is the composition of the trolley, not inflation, that drives the value of the market, because the incidence of references with premium connotations, in terms of high nutritional and environmental content, is increasing," explains Paolo Garro, senior director Italy at Circana. Taking the lion's share of pet care is the food segment (84.4% of the total), which grew by 3.8% last year, with a volume of 666 thousand tonnes (-1.4%).
A figure that, in quantity, brings the market back to the levels of 2021, 'a settling after the boom during the pandemic', reassures Garro, emphasising that 'the 3.125 billion euro reached in 2024 by the pet food market for dogs and cats represents a value that has more than tripled since 2005, when it was just over a billion'. The average annual growth rate (CAGR) of pet food in the period 2021-2024 was 9.8 per cent.
Looking at the wallet, it is cats that have the upper hand over dogs: expenditure on feeding felines reached 1.76 billion euros in 2024, compared to 1.36 for man's faithful friend. Wet cat food grows by 5.3%, dry cat food by 3.6%, while snacks score +10.2% in value and +11.5% in volume. The dog segment grew, but less (+2.3% dry, +1.9% wet, +1.7% snacks) and with decreasing volumes, also due to the increasingly smaller size of the four-legged animals entering the family. Also worth highlighting is the record dynamic of 'pet supplement', which grew by 16% and is now worth EUR 30 million. From the point of view of sales channels, grocery - with over 64,000 shops - has the preponderant share in pet food (over two-thirds of the market), but it is the specialised channel (5,300 shops) that contributes most to growth: it accounts for 36.6% of sales (a figure that will rise in 2024), shows greater stability in volumes and also a greater ability to contain price increases compared to other channels. Supporting the market, however, is above all the thrust of e-commerce: online sales of pet food are now worth 451 million euros, with an annual increase of 8.2%, and it is always cat food that shows the most interesting growth (+13% in value for wet food and + 9% for dry food). On the other hand, food for small animals (-3.9%, 13.4 million euros in sales in 2024 in large-scale distribution alone) and accessories in general (-2.6%, 83.7 million euros) were marked by a minus sign, with exceptions such as the +10.7% in value of pesticides sold in the specialised channel and the +2.5% of cat litter in large-scale distribution.
