Where did US pet food exports go in 2022?
American cat and dog food exports surged by 20% in 2022, hitting almost $2.5 billion in value.
Data from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Global Agricultural Trade System shows that American manufacturers exported pet food worth $2.47 billion (€2.3B).
The products mainly went to neighbors and across the Pacific Ocean, with Canada as the main recipient country. US pet exports to the country were worth $1.12 billion (€1.05B).
China ($264M/€246.7M), Mexico ($177M/€165M), Japan ($135M/€126M), and Australia ($125M/€117M) followed, according to the official data.
China overtook Mexico in 2022 as the second-largest importer of American pet food, up from the fifth place in 2021. The USDA recently said pet food exports to China “surpassed all expectations.”
Other top export regions were the European Union, South Korea, Colombia, the Philippines, and Costa Rica.
Superior quality
According to Pet Food Institute (PFI), there is a growing demand for US-made pet food due to the “superior quality and safety standards” upheld by manufacturers locally.
The institute notes that dog and cat food exports increased “leaps and bounds in spite of challenges that required the industry to adapt quickly and nimbly to changing export demands.” Inflation, avian flu, and the supply chain crisis were some of the hurdles pet food manufacturers had to overcome.
Betsy Flores, Senior VP of Public Policy at PFI, attributed the double-digit pace to a number of factors. This includes the enactment of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, which helped “reduce challenges in international shipping.