Page 50 - PET worldwide issue 03/2021

Pet food ingredients Coronavirus drives

prices up

The coronavirus crisis has caused significant disruption to the
market for pet food ingredients. Many raw materials have be-

come more expensive, driving up the price of pet food in turn.

Capricious weather, political tur- Freight issues houses, however, and proved re-
moil, economic crises: there are At the outbreak of the coronavirus sistant to the crisis initially. China
plenty of factors to disturb the crisis, producers in the Far East mastered its coronavirus outbreak
equilibrium of a raw materials were unable to deliver. The onset with astonishing speed and pro-
market. During the coronavirus of the pandemic in China meant duction soon started up again,
with deliveries recommencing
by the summer of 2020.
This situation did not last long,
however. A substantial increase
in demand for pets during the
pandemic and thus also for food
and accessories soon triggered
the first bottlenecks in manufac-
turing and retail. In particular,
companies producing hay, straw
and food came under pressure.
They had to try and meet the
higher product demand from re-
tailers as best they could under
coronavirus conditions.
Another factor complicating
matters for the pet supplies sec-
tor was that the stream of ex-
ports from Asia, which ground
to a halt until late into the spring
of 2020 due to the pandemic,
ramped up again last summer.
Freight rates are rising by up to 500 pandemic, however, problems that many production plants were This hike in growth has com-
per cent, especially with regard to have accumulated in all sectors closed for weeks. In the European pletely overwhelmed commer-
shipments from China, the country to a worrying extent. In the pet and American pet supplies in- cial shipping, with ships now in
from which many pet product com-
panies source their goods. supplies sector, the result has dustry, which depends most on scarce supply for months. There
been persistent supply short- imports from the Far East, this is also a lack of containers, as
ages that are not restricted to in- necessitated some internal reor- these have been in transit for
dividual countries but affect the ganisation. Most companies had far longer than normal due to
entire world. sufficient reserves in their ware- lengthy delays in ports. Freight

50 PET worldwide 3|2021

PWW2021-03_Buch.indb 50 07.07.2021 13:48:06