Hong Kong’s pet spa, Singapore’s gourmet dog food. What’s with Asia’s pet fetish?
If you thought designer clothes, photoshoots and organic meals were solely the preserve of fussy humans …
A flourishing multibillion-dollar pet-care industry has emerged in Asia, dominated by designer clothes, gourmet food and luxurious spas for its very special clientele.
While Asia’s economic growth is stuttering as trade tensions between the United States and China ratchet higher, the growth of its pet economy is accelerating.
Market research firm Euromonitor has projected that the burgeoning pet-care industry in the region will expand by 70 per cent by 2022, with expenditure to hit US$21.1 billion.
The pet-economy boom is fuelled by Asian economies such as China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The growth is even outstripping that of the human economy as people humanise their pets.
In China, for instance, pet owners are projected to spend 59.1 billion yuan (HK$68 billion) on their pets by 2022, up from 20.2 billion yuan last year. This means the pet market will grow at an annual rate of around 20 per cent, significantly higher than economic growth which expanded by just 6.9 per cent last year.
It is the same story in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Pet expenditure in Hong Kong rose 40 per cent over the last five years, hitting HK$1.3 billion last year. High growth is projected to continue in the next five years, at nearly 6 per cent annually – double the rate its economy has grown in recent years.
