Canada took largest share of $2.4 billion in US pet food exports in 2023

A new report from the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) concludes that pet food exports were worth $2.4 billion (€2.1B) in 2023.

They make the second largest commodity by value among US animal food exports after corn co-products, which was worth $4 billion (€3.6B).

The total value of all US animal food exports, including pet food, was $13.4 billion (€11.9B) in 2023. This is a 79% year-on-year (YoY) increase, while total export volumes were 19.8 million metric tons, depicting a 120% annual increase.

Sales and tax contributions

AFIA estimates that in 2023, around 5,650 US animal food manufacturers, including pet food manufacturers, generated $267.1 billion (€239B) in total sales.

As per the association, dog and cat food led the animal food export categories by value, witnessing a 20% YoY increase.

Last year, the industry also totaled $98.4 billion (€61.2B) in value-added contributions and filed $18.5 billion (€16.5B) in local, state and national taxes.

The animal food manufacturing industry also had a significant impact on employment. According to the data, it provided jobs to 80,300 people and paid $6.9 billion (€6.1B) in wages.

Top export markets

According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Canada ($1.2B/€1.07B), China ($257.7M/€230M) and Mexico ($206.2M/€184.5M) were the top 3 export destinations for dog and cat food in 2023.

Japan ($122.3M/€109.4M) and Australia ($89.3M/€79.9M) were also in the top 5 export markets list.

Other export destinations included the European Union, Colombia, South Korea, Costa Rica and Taiwan.

The USDA’s data also shows that this trend has, for the most part, remained the same since 2014.