千亿赛道两大标杆口碑滑铁卢 谁“瘫”了国产高端宠粮？

This article maps out the current development landscape and existing challenges of China's domestic premium pet food industry, and provides practical guidance for everyday pet owners on choosing pet food.

1. In China's current pet food market, domestic brands claimed a 61% market share in 2024, surpassing imported brands for the first time. Premium pet food accounts for over 40% of the total market and serves as the primary driver of industry growth, as consumers have shifted from simply feeding their pets to prioritizing精细化 nutritional care.

2. A recent large-scale cat feeding safety incident left over 5,000 cats suffering from paralysis and hind limb weakness. Among traceable cases, 65.58% of affected cats had long-term consumed products from BernerFood, and 24.6% consumed products from Fregate. While both brands have released compliance reports, most affected cats showed improvement after switching to other food brands.

3. When choosing pet food, do not rely solely on brand marketing narratives or promotional labels. Prioritize brands' R&D investment and end-to-end quality control capabilities, and avoid brands that pour all resources into marketing rather than building core operational capabilities.

This article analyzes consumption trends, development paths and existing challenges in China's domestic premium pet food sector, offering insights for brands looking to enter the premium market.

1. On the consumption trend front: Gen Z accounts for 69% of China's pet-owning population, with over 80% of this group viewing their pets as family members, forming a consumption pattern of "skimping on themselves, splurging on pets". Consumer demand has shifted from basic satiety to精细化 health-focused care, creating a window for domestic substitution and ample growth space in the premium segment.

2. Two proven development paths are available for reference: Emerging local brands can benchmark against imported brands, build self-owned factories to control production capacity, lay out distribution through offline premium pet store channels early, and then shift online to complete user conversion; listed companies can leverage their parent group's mature supply chain, and scale up quickly through full-funnel marketing combining variety show placements and new media influencer seeding.

3. The industry currently suffers from a widespread overemphasis on marketing over R&D: Domestic players' R&D expense ratio only reaches 1%-2.5%, far lower than the 3%-5% seen at overseas brands, leading to hollowed-out premium positioning. Brands need to increase investment in R&D and quality control to build long-term consumer trust.

This article organizes the opportunities, risks and actionable lessons from China's domestic premium pet food industry, providing practical guidance for pet food sellers.

1. In terms of market opportunity: Domestic premium pet food is the current growth engine of the industry, with a far higher growth rate than low-cost budget pet food. Consumer acceptance of domestic premium pet food continues to rise, and the market has formed a three-tier competitive landscape. Second-tier domestic brands are challenging the premium space, while third-tier players are capturing demand from mass consumers upgrading their purchases. Sellers should prioritize carrying these two categories of brands that align with the domestic substitution trend.

2. Risk warning: The industry has a common problem of overprioritizing marketing over R&D, and several leading premium brands have already been involved in feeding safety incidents. Existing national industry standards are incomplete, and compliance with current standards does not guarantee long-term feeding safety. Sellers should avoid brands that rely solely on marketing hype and lack investment in R&D and quality control.

3. In terms of operations, sellers can learn from leading brands: Acquire customers through offline experiential events, seeding by professional channel KOLs, and new media content marketing, while highlighting product safety as a core selling point to align with consumers' top current demand.

This article analyzes changing demand and development trends in China's domestic premium pet food industry, providing development insights and directional guidance for pet food manufacturers.

1. Changes in product design and production demand: Consumers now prioritize fresh meat content, baking technology, nutrient retention, grain-free formulas, and safety when selecting pet food, with significantly higher requirements for quality and safety. Manufacturers need to make targeted adjustments to production and design processes to develop products that match consumer demand.

2. Commercial opportunities: The domestic premium pet food track continues to expand, and leading brands have launched capacity expansion plans. Companies including Guibao Pet Food, Zhongpet Co., Ltd., and Fobei Pet Food have added large amounts of production capacity for premium pet food, bringing abundant order opportunities for both self-owned brand factories and contract manufacturers.

3. Development insights: The industry has shifted from competing on scale to competing on quality. Long-term feeding safety is consumers' top concern, so manufacturers need to focus on refining end-to-end精细化 quality control systems, solve issues such as heat-sensitive nutrient loss during high-temperature processing, adapt in advance to future national standard upgrades, and build core competitive advantages.

This article sorts out development trends and core pain points of China's domestic premium pet food industry, and clarifies business directions for service providers serving the pet food sector.

1. Industry development trends: Domestic premium pet food has completed a leapfrog upgrade, with its market size continuing to expand. China's urban pet consumption market will exceed 312.6 billion yuan in 2025, with pet food accounting for more than half of the total. Premium pet food makes up over 40% of the pet food market and is the core growth engine of the industry, meaning demand for professional services will continue to rise going forward.

2. Core client pain points: Most brands prioritize marketing over R&D, and lack independent core nutrition R&D capabilities and long-term clinical research capabilities, with incomplete end-to-end quality control systems. Existing national standards lack safety testing indicators required for emerging categories, and brands cannot complete full-dimensional safety testing on their own.

3. Business opportunities: Service providers can develop targeted services including core nutrition R&D, full-dimensional safety testing, and digital end-to-end quality control management, and add testing items such as heat-sensitive nutrient loss rate and long-term cumulative damage risk. These services can help brands solve their underlying capability gaps and meet the demand for industry upgrading.

This article analyzes industry changes in China's domestic premium pet food sector, providing reference for platforms on merchant recruitment, operations and risk mitigation.

1. Changes in market demand: Consumer demand for premium pet food is growing rapidly, and consumers have shifted from focusing on marketing narratives to prioritizing feeding safety, while acceptance of domestic premium pet food continues to rise. Platforms need to adjust their recruitment strategy to onboard more domestic premium pet food brands with strong R&D capabilities and sound quality control systems.

2. Directions for operational optimization: Premium pet food brands focus on offline customer acquisition and full-funnel online operations. Offline platforms can introduce premium brands into supermarket stores to reach high-spending consumers, while online platforms can allocate matching marketing resources to support brands' influencer seeding and in-house live stream operations to meet brands' customer acquisition needs.

3. Risk mitigation: The industry currently faces widespread feeding safety controversies, and many brands have gaps in quality control. Platforms need to improve product review mechanisms, add verification of safety-related indicators, resolve consumer complaints promptly, and guide brands to disclose R&D and quality control information to reduce reputational risk for the platform.

This article reviews the development history, new trends and existing problems of China's domestic premium pet food industry, providing a typical case and comprehensive reference for industrial research.

1. New industry trends: Domestic pet food captured 61% market share in 2024, surpassing imported brands across the board for the first time. Premium pet food accounts for over 40% of the total market and has become the industry's growth engine. The sector has left crude low-price competition behind, forming a competitive landscape with foreign brands holding the first tier, and domestic brands occupying the second and third tiers. The industry has entered a new stage of domestic substitution and premiumization.

2. Emerging industry problems: The sector currently faces the issue of hollowed-out premium positioning, with a widespread overemphasis on marketing over R&D. Domestic companies' R&D expense ratio only reaches 1%-2.5%, far lower than the 3%-5% of overseas brands, and lack core technical barriers. Meanwhile, the existing national standard system lags behind industry development and cannot cover the safety testing needs of emerging product categories. Many brands have neglected quality control refinement during capacity expansion, leading to multiple safety incidents.

3. Summary of business models: Two mature premiumization business models have formed in the industry: the breakout model adopted by emerging local brands of building self-owned factories, expanding offline first then shifting online, and the upgrading model where leading contract manufacturers incubate premium sub-brands based on their existing supply chains. Both models carry high research value.