Page 14 - PET worldwide issue 1/2021

Review of the year

Pets assume a bigger

role than ever

Nothing preoccupied us in 2020 as much as the coronavirus;
the news changed hourly as the pandemic spread. There were
no winners, but the pet supplies sector got off lightly as the year
unfolded

It started off as a completely into a full-blown global crisis in trade show Global Pet Expo ex-
unknown virus in China – just a matter of weeks. perienced a drastic downturn
one of many headlines. But then One of the first international in visitor numbers as a con-
everything changed. What was pet trade shows to be convened sequence of the coronavirus,”
The Global Pet Expo in Orlando
was dominated by the coronavirus just an unsettling news item in in 2020 was Anido in Kortrijk, PET worldwide reported on 24
pandemic December and January turned Belgium in mid-February. Al- March. It would be the last in-
though the coronavirus was the ternational pet supplies show
topic of many conversations, for a long time; a string of can-
most attendees were concerned cellations followed. At the start
about their supply chains, an of May, it became known that
imminent shortage of raw ma- even the world-leading Interzoo
terials and the closed produc- fair could not take place: “The or-
tion plants in China. “We can’t ganisers of the two international
say at the moment whether we trade fairs Interzoo and Zoomark
will have anything to exhibit at International have agreed to
Interzoo,” were the words on postpone their events until next
many suppliers’ lips. The trend year. That means Interzoo will be
towards regionalism was doing held from 1 to 4 June 2021 and
the rounds. Zoomark International from 9 to
A week after Anido, the 12 May 2022,” was the hopeful
Global Pet Expo was staged in announcement. By now it was
the USA. “Compared with previ- clear to even the most hardened
ous years, the US pet supplies sceptic that 2020 would pose

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