With the development of the national economy and the continuous improvement of income levels, people's lifestyles and consumption patterns are undergoing profound changes. Against the backdrop of the rise of the single-person economy and the silver economy, people's emotional needs have become increasingly strong, and the concept of pet care has been continuously upgraded. The role of pets in families has shifted from traditional "animals" to important "family members", ushering the pet industry into a new era of rapid development.
Currently, the pet consumption market is characterized by focusing on "basic survival" as the core and gradually deepening towards "health and emotion". Driven by the popularization of healthy and scientific rearing methods, the trend of pets being "treated as family members" has become increasingly prominent. Pet owners' high attention to pet health protection is driving a new round of consumption upgrading.
I. New Industry Trend: Cat Economy Leads, Quality Consumption Rises
In 2025, driven by policy updates and changes in pet-keeping preferences, China's pet food industry has shown a new trend dominated by the "cat economy". Data shows that the scale of China's pet food market reached 227.2 billion yuan in 2024 and is expected to grow to 380 billion yuan by 2028, demonstrating huge market potential.
Cat food leads the market with a 61% share, which is supported by the rapid growth of the cat-keeping population. From 2018 to 2024, the compound annual growth rate of cat owners reached 10.4%, much higher than the 1.0% of dog owners. The accelerated urbanization process, limited living space, and the accelerated work pace of young people have made cats, which are more adaptable to indoor rearing, the first choice of companions for urban residents.
At the same time, pet consumption has also shown an obvious upgrading trend. The annual consumption per pet dog reached 2,961 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.99%; the annual consumption per pet cat was 2,020 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%. Pet owners' growing attention to pet health has driven the product price range to move towards the mid-to-high end, reflecting the shift of pet consumption from meeting basic needs to pursuing a quality life.
II. Market Pattern: Domestic Brands Counterattack, Staple Food Becomes the Focus of Competition
In terms of product strategy, leading enterprises have unanimously shifted their focus to the staple food category.
As the core category of pet food, staple food accounts for 69.6% of the entire market. Due to its more stable repurchase demand, it is easy to widen the gap with competing products and has stronger brand stickiness, making it the key for enterprises to build long-term competitive barriers. Pet staple food can meet the comprehensive nutritional needs of pets, effectively replace homemade pet food, and is a rigid demand for pet rearing, which also anchors a key direction for enterprises to deploy their pet food business.
III. Channel Transformation: Integration of Online and Offline, Emphasis on Both Experience and Convenience
In terms of sales channels, the industry presents a diversified pattern of "online-led, offline-supplemented, and medical-empowered". E-commerce platforms have become the most important consumption channel with a 50% share.
Among offline channels, pet specialty stores (27%) and pet hospitals (8%) have highlighted their value with professional services and experience advantages. In the future, the integration of online and offline (OMO) will become a new development trend in the industry. By combining convenient online access with professional offline services, it can accurately meet the diverse needs of pet-keeping groups.
IV. Innovation-Driven: Technology Empowers the Supply Chain, Functional Raw Materials Are Favored
Facing increasingly fierce market competition, pet food enterprises have successively improved their product competitiveness through technological innovation. The dual driving forces of intelligent production and category innovation not only reduce costs and increase efficiency through supply chain optimization but also meet the needs of consumption upgrading with high-end products.
In 2025, the high-end pet food market accounted for more than 40%, with a growth rate far higher than that of the mid-to-low-end market. Emerging categories such as baked food and freeze-dried food have become growth hotspots, while the application of functional raw materials has become the key to product differentiation.
Against this background, postbiotic raw materials for pets, as innovative functional ingredients, are attracting increasing attention from more brands. Postbiotics are preparations of non-living microorganisms and/or their components that are beneficial to the host's health, with effects such as regulating intestinal health and enhancing immunity. Their heat resistance, processing resistance, and stability are superior to those of live probiotics. These excellent characteristics determine that they have higher adaptability in different types of pet food (liquid, solid, paste, etc.), different addition stages (before heating, after heating), and in response to different processing processes, making them a key functional raw material considered in the current development of pet food.
V. Chiti Bio-Innovation: PostbioA® Series of Pet Postbiotics, Empowering Industry Upgrading
As a leader in the domestic targeted postbiotic industry, Chiti Bio has successfully developed the PostbioA® series of postbiotic raw materials after years of in-depth research and development, providing comprehensive innovative solutions for different dimensions of pet health.
The PostbioA® series of postbiotics features high stability, high-temperature resistance, and easy processing, and is suitable for various pet products such as staple food, snacks, nutritional supplements, and grooming products. Through rigorous scientific research and clinical trials, we have verified its significant effects in improving pet intestinal health, oral health, and skin health.
VI. Technological Advantages and Industry Value
Chiti has established strategic cooperation with a number of scientific research institutions, continuously conducting pet clinical trials, in-depth analyzing the mechanism of action of postbiotics, and continuously optimizing product formulas to provide reliable technical support for partners.
In the new stage where the pet food industry is shifting from high-speed growth to high-quality development, Chiti looks forward to cooperating with international partners to jointly promote the pet food industry towards a more professional, scientific, and healthy direction, and provide better life protection for pets.
In the future, Chiti will continue to increase R&D investment, deepen cutting-edge research on pet nutrition and health, and develop more innovative functional raw material solutions to inject new impetus into the high-quality development of the pet food industry. We firmly believe that promoting industry progress through technological innovation and safeguarding pet health through professional services can contribute professional strength to the path of harmony between humans and pets, and truly benefit every pet-loving family with technological innovation.
Technological innovation, nutritional future - Chiti will always adhere to this concept and work with industry peers to create a better future for the pet food industry.
