India: An International Pet Care Market to Watch

With its massive human population of approximately 250 million households and its relatively tiny pet population of around 20 million, India has enormous pet market potential, witnessed by recent years of heady growth, according to Packaged Facts in the report International Pet Market Perspectives: Trend and Opportunities in Pet Food. From 2012 to 2017, pet care sales grew exponentially and the market has enough momentum to expect even greater growth looking ahead to 2022.

Dogs account for the large majority of pets in India, and pet food represents approximately two-thirds of the pet product business (pet accessories, grooming and healthcare comprise the balance). Driving growth are the burgeoning middle and upper classes, the growing number of nuclear families in urban areas, and delayed childbearing among India’s younger population.

As Binoy Sahee, director of the India International Pet Trade Fair, told the Financial Times (February 13, 2018), “We are going through a small revolution in India … People’s disposable incomes are increasing, and more couples are choosing to have children later, only to have one child, or not to have children at all. All this is fuelling the demand for keeping pets at home.”