Taiwan’s pets industry has grown to more than NT$60 billion (US$1.96 billion) annually, and the number of pets is nearing the number of children under 14, Council of Agriculture (COA) data show.
In 2021, 2.1 million cats and dogs were registered, while there were 2.89 million children, making it likely that the number of pets would surpass the number of children before 2027, the council said.
“Actually, the number of pet dogs has been declining, but the number of pet cats has soared,” Kennel Club of Taiwan executive director Chuang Tsan-chien (莊璨謙) said.
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
Publicly available data from the government’s pet registration Web site, www.pet.gov.tw, show that the number of pet cats has been growing steadily over the past two years, Chuang said.
“Last year, the number of registered domestic cats reached 135,059, surpassing the 106,916 registered dogs,” he said.
The growing number of cats is fueling a boom in pet-related industries such as grooming, pet hotels and pet funeral service providers, he said.
“Funeral services for pets are quite customizable now, and people have paper models of their pet’s favorite snacks, clothes, toys and other items burned together with their pet during cremation,” he said.
The average pet funeral costs NT$20,000 to NT$30,000, but the fee can be as much as NT$300,000, he said.
“The market is worth NT$60 billion annually now, and NT$40 billion of that is pet consumables, accounting for 70 percent of the total,” said Charles Han (韓家宇), chairman of animal food manufacturer DaChan Great Wall. “The remaining 30 percent is supplies and toys, and 70 percent of that is imported products.”
Eyeing the growing market, Taiwanese companies, such as DaChan, Uni-President Group and Fwusow Industry, are developing new pet-related products and seeking new sales channels.
A survey by the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute showed that 43.9 Taiwanese percent of pet owners shop only at brick-and-mortar stores selling pet products, while 39.4 percent shop online and at physical stores and 16.7 percent use only online shopping.
Pet stores made up the bulk of the physical stores respondents said they shop at, but a growing number of pet owners buy the products at chain supermarkets, the institute said, adding that the supermarkets it spoke with reported a 10 percent increase in pet product sales over the past few years.
Growth in the industry has also prompted several universities to offer pet grooming or veterinary medicine courses, Chuang said.
“About 1,000 people get pet grooming licenses every year, but pet stores are still short of workers,” he said. “Pet grooming junior assistants can complete training in four to six months, but bathing dogs and cats is laborious work, so people often move on from that after a short time.”
‘ANGRY’: Forgetting the humiliations and sacrifices of ‘the people of the Republic of China’ experienced disqualified Lai from being president, Ma Ying-jeou said Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday criticized President William Lai (賴清德) over what he called “phrasing that downplayed Japan’s atrocities” against China during World War II. Ma made the remarks in a post on Facebook on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Ma said he was “angry and disappointed” that Lai described the anniversary as the end of World War II instead of a “victory in the war of resistance” — a reference to the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). The eight-year war was a part of World War II, in which Japan and the other Axis
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday announced a ban on all current and former government officials from traveling to China to attend a military parade on Sept. 3, which Beijing is to hold to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. "This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Republic of China’s victory in the War of Resistance [Against Japan]," MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a regular news briefing in Taipei. To prevent Beijing from using the Sept. 3 military parade and related events for "united
‘OFFSHORE OPERATIONS’: Also in Dallas, Texas, the Ministry of Economic Affairs inaugurated its third Taiwan Trade and Investment Center to foster closer cooperation The 2025 Taiwan Expo USA opened on Thursday in Dallas, Texas, featuring 150 Taiwanese companies showcasing their latest technologies in the fields of drones, smart manufacturing and healthcare. The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the event’s organizer, said the exhibitors this year include Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn), the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer; AUO; PC brand Asustek Computer; and drone maker Thunder Tiger. In his opening speech, TAITRA chairman James Huang (黃志芳) said he expected Texas to become a world-class center for innovation and manufacturing as US technology companies from Silicon Valley and Taiwanese manufacturers form an industrial cluster
A 20-year-old man yesterday evening was electrocuted and fell to his death after he climbed a seven-story-high electricity tower to photograph the sunset, causing a wildfire on Datong Mountain (大同山) in New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林), the Taoyuan Police Department said today. The man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), was accompanied on an evening walk by a 20-year-old woman surnamed Shang (尚) who remained on the ground and witnessed the incident, capturing a final photograph of her friend sitting atop the tower before his death, an initial investigation showed. Shang then sought higher ground to call for help, police said. The New Taipei
RSS