The share of imported pet food is estimated at less than 10%, and well-known brands are subject to bans

The share of imported pet food is estimated at less than 10%, and well-known brands are subject to bans

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Restrictions on the supply of pet food to the Russian Federation and difficulties with the purchase of a number of imported brands affect the share of imports in this market. In 2023, the figure is estimated at 10%, and well-known brands such as Hill’s are subject to the bans. The assortment on the market is being restored due to retailers’ own brands, as well as products from Turkey and Serbia.

The share of imported pet food on the Russian market by the end of 2023 is tentatively estimated at less than 10% versus 15–20% in 2021. This data was provided to Kommersant by the National Association of the Pet Industry. Association President Kirill Dmitriev attributes the decrease in the share of imports to restrictions imposed by Rosselkhoznadzor on the import of certain brands of feed into the Russian Federation from various enterprises and difficulties with the purchase of some foreign brands.

Marketing director of the online store for pet products Petshop Serge Ivanov says that the demand for imported products in the store is decreasing, and sales of food under its own brands Organix, Florida and Savita are growing. Wildberries reported that in 2023, imported pet food brands accounted for less than 10%, and noted a trend toward import substitution in the assortment.

On January 30, Rosselkhoznadzor announced the suspension of feed supplies from the Italian enterprise Hill’s Pet Nutrition (part of Colgate-Palmolive) from February 6, 2024 “due to the supply of low-quality products.” They added that this was the last site of the company that had the right to supply to the Russian Federation. From August 7, 2023, Rosselkhoznadzor suspended supplies of Hill’s feed from a plant in the Netherlands, and in 2021 from enterprises in the Czech Republic and the USA. And on January 31, TASS reported that the service had introduced restrictions on the import of feed into the Russian Federation from the Serbian enterprise Farmina Pet Foods due to the “repeated detection of arsenic.” Hill’s Pet Nutrition and Farmina Pet Foods did not immediately respond to Kommersant.

As Serge Ivanov notes, Hill’s specializes in medicinal food, and it is in this segment that the suspension of supplies could become a problem for consumers. Hill’s food on Wildberries was among the popular ones along with the Purina and Mars Petcare brands, a representative of the marketplace said. According to Kirill Dmitriev, Hill’s produces wet food in Italy and the company may still have the opportunity to supply these products from a plant in France. According to RosAccreditation, the Russian structure of Hill’s Pet Nutrition in recent months has received declarations for canned food produced by the Italian Hill’s Pet Nutrition Manufacturing and the French La Normandise. The latter, at the end of January, is included in the list of enterprises from which Rosselkhoznadzor allows the import of feed for unproductive animals until April 2024.

However, according to NielsenIQ, the range of cat and dog food on the Russian market in 2023 grew by 8.5% and 10.5% after declining in 2022 by 2.4% and 4.4%, respectively. Kirill Dmitriev attributes the dynamics primarily to the expansion of the number of private labels (private labels) of chains, the emergence of new brands from local manufacturers and brands from countries such as Turkey and China. Thus, the Beethoven chain launched the More line of food and treats. Petshop now has food under the Vida and KITO brands from Serbia and Turkey. Although, according to Rosstat, the volume of production of ready-made feed for non-productive animals in the Russian Federation in 2023 decreased by 1.5% year-on-year, to 1.4 million tons. Kommersant’s interlocutor among feed producers, however, says that production volumes remain stable.

General Director of Infoline-Analytics Mikhail Burmistrov says that imported pet food still retains a share in the premium segment and the specialized food segment, where Russian manufacturers are poorly represented. Serge Ivanov notes that Russian feed is half the price of its Western counterparts, which stimulates demand for local products. And Kirill Dmitriev points out that, given the limited shelf space, most likely some of the feed brands that have appeared on the Russian market will not be able to gain a foothold and the transformation of the assortment will apparently continue in the coming years. According to NielsenIQ, natural sales of cat and dog food in Russia in 2023 grew by 10% and 6%, respectively.

Polina Gritsenko, Anatoly Kostyrev

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