Pets offer Hong Kong a new growth industry – and more
Beyond representing a new silver economy, pets deliver a social dividend by helping fight the loneliness and inactivity associated with ageing
The findings were based on an online survey of about 2,500 cat owners last month, with 85 per cent of respondents indicating that their overall cat-care expenses had risen in the past year. Based on the number of households with cats, the group estimated monthly expenditure on pet cats in Hong Kong had surpassed HK$500 million.
A growing proportion of ageing cats in the city is expected to help drive market growth in the coming years. There are rich rewards to be reaped for anticipating market trends in demand for products. Exhibition Group general manager Shirley Chu Shuet-ling said she expects mainstream human product brands to increasingly diversify into the pet market by developing pet food and supplements.
“In many cases, consumers feel more reassured giving their pets products from brands that are originally made for the human market,” she said, adding that many brands were developing cross-sector products to meet demand.
Hong Kong’s cat population, like the human one, is ageing and raising expectations of increasing consumption of medical care, prescription food and healthcare products for cats. While most expenditure on cats is for basic necessities such as food and cat litter, medical and healthcare products already account for 14.4 per cent of total spending.