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Pet food an emerging protein market

The director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center points to pet food as an emerging protein market.

Jim Robb says look no further than the grocery store.

“Where a few years ago we maybe had one aisle of pet food, now we have three.  And to be listed on the pet food as beef or pork, (although) there’s not really a lot of pork in pet food.  But chicken or lamb, it has to be skeletal-based meats.  Where we used to use a lot of byproducts, tongue, liver, etc in those products.”

He tells Brownfield consumers seem to be willing to pay a high premium during a quick evolution towards more protein and less grains for people and pets.

“We now have fresh animal pet foods in the fresh case, and we also have frozen products (in addition to) the bag and the canned products.  This has changed very dramatically.  We often talk about per-capita consumption in the United States.  But we forget that a growing component of that consumption is really for the pets that are eating some very high-quality diets.”

Robb says millennials are paying more per pound for pet food than they do for their own food.