PET FOOD ▶▶▶
Iran’s pet food industry is hoping for change
Iran, one of the biggest and most promising pet food markets in the Middle East, is experiencing an acute shortage of high-quality pet food products, as the import of foreign brands continues to be banned. US President-Elect Joe Biden may change this.
BY VLADISLAV VOROTNIKOV, CORRESPONDENT F
Some feed mills in Iran are trying to move into pet food production.
oreign brands have dominated the Iranian pet food market for many years. J.M. Vet Group was the largest importer of pet food in Iran with a market share of more than 50%, selling 1,300 metric tonnes in 2017,
according to Dr Jalaleddin Mirfakhrai, director of the compa- ny. The Iran Customs Office reported that the country was im- porting pet food from Spain, Australia, France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Thai- land, Turkey, and the Czech Republic. Historically, France was the biggest supplier of pet food. Agras Delic, Schesir, and Stuzzy were the market leaders in the wet segment, while Bosch-Tiernahrung was the most popular brand in the dry pet food segment. In 2025, this US$ 80 million pet food mar- ket is predicted to reach the European level of per capita pet food consumption and become the biggest market in the Middle East.
However, the results of the 2016 US Presidential elections brought a nightmare for Iran’s pet owners. The Trump adminis- tration reinstated all US sanctions on Iran which were removed under the 2015 nuclear deal. Several hundred individuals, enti- ties, vessels, and aircraft were put on the sanctions list, includ- ing major banks, oil exporters and shipping companies. Al- though the Trump sanctions did not target the Iran pet food companies directly, their impact on the local market was truly devastating. In the following year, pet food, in fact, fell victim to so-called internal sanctions. According to Dr Mirfakhrai, the US sanctions caused the exchange rate of the national currency to soar. The government found itself stripped of foreign currency, so embarked on several measures aimed at decreasing imports to the maximum possible extent. In April 2019, the govern- ment divided all customs codes into four groups. Pet food was included in Group 4 (so-called “unnecessary goods”), all of which were technically banned from importing to Iran. Against this background, the price of imported pet food in Iran sky- rocketed, in some cases, by a factor of ten compared to early 2019. “Starting from April 2019, imports of pet food were total- ly banned by the Iranian government, so for more than a year the supply of pet food through legal channels like through my company was zero. There is therefore now a lack of well-known brands on the market,” Dr Mirfakhrai said.
30 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 28, No. 10, 2020
PHOTO: IRAN COMPANY SAMARCO
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