Smaller brothers: how to replace foreign pet food

In Russia, the production of pet food is actively developing. Every day, pet owners are less and less faced with a shortage of products that arose after the departure of foreign companies. Domestic manufacturers are now actively developing this market. There are problems only with special therapeutic and dietary feeds. How are they solved now? Details – in the material REN TV.

New menu

Cat Gosha crunches Russian food with appetite. It was necessary to draw up a new menu when six pets refused the food they were accustomed to from birth.

“For more than two years we have been sitting on the stern of Cat Chow. They stopped eating it outright. It has lost its quality, the smell has changed,” says cat owner Anastasia Valeiko.

This brand really had problems with the ingredients. Due to logistical difficulties, a large foreign company stops the production and sale of five popular budget lines of cat and dog food.

“When there is a shortage of ingredients, it is more profitable for any company to produce expensive, super premium feed. Many companies used imported raw materials in the form of amino acids, minerals, vitamins, which were imported from Europe”, – says Kirill Dmitriev, chairman of the board of the zoo business enterprise union.

The cost of logistics for European components has increased by an average of five times. And retail prices have increased by a third since the beginning of the year.

For those who consider food bags, the price decides. Four centners of dry treats is the norm for 40 dogs of the zoo. They switched to a domestic product two years ago and have already saved about a million rubles.

“In composition, it is identical to a foreign manufacturer. The condition of dogs and cats also completely suits us“, – explained the head of the charitable foundation for helping homeless animals “I’ll be there” Yana Barinova.

Animal feed price

Economy-class feed at cost is already catching up with the middle segment. And this is two-thirds of retail sales. They include meat and bone meal, cereals, dried vegetables, vegetable proteins and a long list of artificial additives. But such a set is not suitable for every thoroughbred stomach.

For her British cat, Anastasia bought exclusively Italian premium food, which disappeared from stores in the spring.

“I called and went around half the city, I tried to order on Ozon, I looked everywhere on the sites. He just disappeared, and that’s it,” says Anastasia.

The question arises: how much is the price of the food that disappeared from the sale and the one that you have to buy now? “The price does not differ at all, absolutely the same,” says the owner of the pet.

The British did not even notice the change. But for pet owners who need therapeutic or specialized dietary feed, serious difficulties can arise.

“Medicinal feeds on the market are produced by only four companies that have a very large financial base. But now the domestic manufacturer has gone further, such specialized feeds with an improved formula have begun to be produced”– adds veterinarian Angelina Sirotina.

Natural food for pets

Russian companies are also defending fashion trends – healthy lifestyle and natural food for animals.

Chilled turkey fillet, offal, minced meat. The nutritional value of natural food is several times higher than that of conventional wet food. One such bag should be enough for a cat to be full all day long. And the average cost of a daily diet will be 89 rubles.

For comparison: the norm in the premium line is three sachets per day, and this is almost 400 rubles. Minimum ingredients – there will be no interruptions in supplies. But there are nuances: such a product is stored only in a frozen form and is sold directly to the client via the Internet in order to avoid markups from retailers.

“Over the past two years, we have grown several times, because the demand for healthy food for animals, it is constantly growing. Therefore, we now feel absolutely good”– says Vadim Larionov, co-owner of the company for the production of natural animal feed.

Now 85% of the feed on the market is of Russian origin: either own brands or localized production of transnational corporations. A very small segment of dietary and medical nutrition remains to replace imports. According to market analysts, Russian manufacturers will be able to do this in the next 3-4 years. In the meantime, logistical problems are slowly but still being resolved, and some food that disappeared in the spring is returning to the market.