Market Size of Pet Food in India

C: Are we looking at a particular category of pets here?

C: The pet food market consists of both affordable and premium brands. Would you like me to focus on a particular brand segment.

C:  Okay so I will be considering only the affordable brand segment.

C: So first I would like to consider the population of India and divide them into urban and rural dwellers. Majority of the people in the rural areas mostly do not own cats and dogs or even if they do usually left-over household food is served to them. Hence, they do not present a substantial market for us. Would it be fair assumption to ignore that portion.

C: In the urban segment I would like to divide the population into 3 segments: Low income, medium income, and high-income segment. I would further divide each of these segments into the Current Owners, Prospective Owners, and Non-Interested Owners. The former two segments can be divided into Dog-Cat owners and other domestic pet owners.

C: In the low-income segment, because of less disposable income majority of the population will be in the non-interested owner segment. In the current and prospective owner segment, the percentage of people will be higher in dog and cat pet owners as most other pets in market will require more resources from the owner's end.

C: In the medium income segment, I think the current and prospective owners will be more, with the later taking precedence because of increased inclination towards having pets and awareness of plights of street animals. This segment too will have a greater number of people in the dog-cat owner segment as their disposable income will allow them to invest in the training, upkeep, vaccinations, and affordable food for the pets.

C: To triangulate this data with real hard facts, we can approach local pet stores and analyse their sales data to cross check our estimations. We can also look at records with animal welfare organizations like PETA, on their animal adoption records.

C: Lastly the high-income segment might have least number of people in the non-interested segments and greater proportion in the other two branches. However, with greater disposable income these people might be inclined towards buying more exotic pets. Also, the dog and cat owners of this segment might go for premium pet food rather than the affordable one.