HONG KONG: Hong Kong's pet industry has seen steady growth over the past few years, with animal owners shelling out close to HK$700,000 (3.2 million baht) on average on care items and services during their pets' lifetime, making them one of the top spenders in this category in the Asia-Pacific region.
Pet insurance company OneDegree surveyed 526 pet owners in Hong Kong and found that they spend an average of HK$680,000 raising their animal friends, according to a report published on Tuesday.
The top spending categories were pet food and snacks, accounting for 19.4% of the total, veterinary visits and medication, accounting for 17.2% and health check-ups and dental care, accounting for 9.8%.
"Uninvolved or permissive [pet] parenting are no longer the norm for pet owners," said Emily Chow, OneDegree's deputy CEO. "They highly value daily care, diet and their pets' well-being and health."
Owning pets has become increasingly popular in Hong Kong over the past five years, with the number of cats, dogs, birds and other pets jumping by 50,000 to 1.19 million between 2018 and 2023, according to Statista. The industry has seen sales grow by 50% over these five years to US$1.2 billion (42.8 billion baht) last year, according to Euromonitor data.
An ageing population, Covid-19-related social isolation and the high costs of raising children are among key factors that have driven the growth of the city's pet industry, according to separate reports by the German Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and OneDegree.
OneDegree's Chow said that pet owners these days not only seek vet care when their pets fall ill, but they also schedule regular check-ups and enrol their pets in insurance plans. "They consider pets as family and provide their four-legged companions the same love and care," she added.
However, despite the money and effort that Hongkongers are spending to take care of their pets, the city's pet insurance industry is still in its nascency, with an estimated use rate of around 5%.
The report shows that as many as 16% of the 526 owners polled by OneDegree had never heard about pet insurance, and among those who had heard of pet insurance, less than half had enrolled their pets in an insurance plan.
Chow attributed the low use of pet insurance in Hong Kong to a lack of education in past decades and insufficient understanding of veterinary expenses among pet owners.
"We believe [that] by continuing to educate pet owners, providing transparent product information, as well as a seamless and efficient online insurance purchase-and-claim experience, the market will grow and boom in Hong Kong," she said.
Meanwhile, mainland China's pet industry is also seeing positive growth, even though the growth momentum has slowed over the past few years due in part to Covid-19 and its impact on households' disposable incomes.
Last year, mainland pet owners spent an average of 2,875 yuan (14,000 baht) per year on their dogs and 1,870 yuan on their cats, marking declines of 0.2% and 0.75%, respectively, compared to 2022 levels. Nonetheless, the market recorded total sales of US$13.6 billion, close to a 100% increase from 2018, according to reports published separately by industry bodies such as the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association and Euromonitor.
Pet food dominated owners' spending with a 52.3% share, while medical products and services, including medication, physical examinations and vaccines, account for 28.5%, the association's report shows.
The mainland pet economy is expected to reach 81.1 billion yuan in sales next year, according to estimates by iiMedia Research.