China petfood manufacturers want fair treatment of products in US

After Petco and other US petfood retailers began to remove Chinese products from their stores, China’s petfood exporters have called for objective and fair treatment of its products.

In January, Petco said it had removed all Chinese-made dog and cat treats from its website and stores because of concerns over pet illnesses. In May, Petco and PetSmart said they want to ban the treats.
In response, the Pet Food Articles Inspection and Quarantine Branch of China Entry and Exit Inspection and Quarantine Association said that "there is no direct evidence of a correlation between the pet snacks manufactured in China and the disease and death of pets in USA."
"De-shelving with no reason will result in trade losses of the importers/exporters of the two countries and cause a misunderstanding by US consumers about pet snacks manufactured in China," the association said in a statement provided to China Daily.
The association said most Chinese enterprises do OEM for US brands, and raw, auxiliary materials and production technology are in accordance with the requests of US importers. The group says many Chinese petfood companies have been affected by the move.
"We wish the US retailers to treat pet snacks manufactured in China objectively and fairly, and US consumers not be misguided by groundless suspicions," it added.

China denies link between US pet sickness, Chinese treats

Pet treats made in China have no connection to pet illnesses in the US, according to China's top quality supervisor, who said there has been no direct evidence found to link the two.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said tests—conducted by it and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—had not confirmed any connection and had not detected any poisonous or hazardous ingredients in the treats, despite allegations that they were the cause of widespread illness and death in US pets. The AQSIQ didn't specify which brands or treats were under investigation.
The statement came after US pet specialty retailer Petco announced in early January 2015 that it was pulling all pet treats made in China from its 1,300 stores because of concerns they had caused sickness in thousands of pets and killed more than 1,000 dogs in the US since 2007. PetSmart Inc. also plans to remove the treats from its stores by March 2015.
China will closely follow events and hopes the parties concerned can remain objective and rational, said the AQSIQ in a statement. 

ResearchMoz offers report on China's petfood market competition

ResearchMoz now offers a report on China's petfood market competition, available for purchase online. 
The report provides an explanation of how petfood maker Mars entered the Chinese petfood market in 1993 with its Pedigree dog food and Whiskas cat food brands. In March 2001, Chengdu Care-Pet Food Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Tongwei Group, was established; the production of its first bag of petfood signified that China's local petfood brand entered into the petfood industry. Since then, the report says China's petfood industry has grown and completed upgrading for larger-scale production. 
The report says sales revenue in the Chinese petfood market has exceeded 1.5 billion Yuan (US$244.7 million), and market scale is increasing by more than 15 percent on average each year, which is far above the global average growth rate of 4 percent. 

Alltech names petfood company as first Chinese partner of World Equestrian Games

Alltech has announced Jinkangbao as the first Chinese company to become an Alltech Official Partner of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy.
The Alltech Official Partner Program is a strategic partnership with horse feed and animal health and nutrition companies around the world. The partnership allows Jinkangbao exclusive marketing rights, and the company will begin a number of marketing and promotional campaigns across their range of petfoods.
"Jinkangbao is proud to be the first Chinese Alltech Official Partner for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy. We are a very dynamic company in the Chinese petfood market and the partnership will not only help us increase our brand awareness in a fast growing Chinese petfood market but will allow us to  enter the equine feed market soon," said, Jiang Chao, CEO.

Investigation into counterfeit brand petfood sales in China underway

A business in China suspected of selling counterfeit brand-name petfood online is now being investigated by a quality-control group in Shanghai, China.
The Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision began its investigation in February after receiving a report that a store on taobao.com was selling counterfeit brand-name cat and dog food for two years, with monthly sales of nearly 10,000 yuan (US$1,612).
The bureau and police spent a month investigating where the online store was storing the petfood products, finding that it changed warehouse sites frequently. Investigators found repacking machines, a scale, about 380 packages of petfood and empty packaging at a nearly 50-square-meter warehouse in rural Qingpu district. 
According to the bureau, the owner said he hired employees to purchase ordinary petfood online and then repackage it in fake packaging that looks like the Royal Canin and Pedigree petfood brands. Police are still investigating the case.  

'Pet Care in China' report finds rise in pet food sales

A new market research report from Euromonitor International, "Pet Care in China," found that the total pet population and share of prepared food for dogs and cats has risen over the review period, driving sales of pet food in terms of volume and value.
The report found growth in the pet care market also driven by the rising need for companionship, humanization of pets and the trend of consumers trading up to premium pet foods. The report offers a guide to the size and shape of the pet care market in China, with retail sales data from 2007-2011 and forecasts to 2016. 

European Commission regulation limits melamine in pet food

After recent reports of wet pet food containing melamine levels in excess of the 2.5 mg/kg legal limit, the European Commission created a Regulation to amend Annex 1 to Directive 2002/32/EC, which sets the legal maximum level of melamine in animal feed.
Although the legal limit of melamine in canned pet food will remain at 2.5 mg/kg, a footnote has been added to state that this is on an “as sold” basis rather than a 12 percent moisture basis.
Once passed by the European Parliament, the Regulation to amend Annex 1 to Directive 2002/32/EC will be published in the Official Journal. The Regulation will then be enforced on the 20th day after publication, which is expected in early 2013.

President Obama's dog depicted in new campaign against pet food from China

Food & Water Watch, a group that lobbies for stricter food-import laws, has launched a campaign criticizing the safety of food and pet food imported from China, which the group hopes will attract attention with the help of a new poster figure.
A recent article from Food & Water Watch features President Obama's dog, Bo Obama, in a photo in front of the White House, with the caption: “Is the First Dog being fed risky chicken treats from China? The president owes Bo and all of us finalized food safety rules to protect our health.”
The group criticizes the administration because it says there are currently no regulations on the safety of petfood imported from China, despite US Food and Drug Administration warnings about chicken jerky treats. Meanwhile, the group says the amount of food coming from China that is fed to US pets has increased by 85-fold from 2003 to 2011.
“China should not be allowed to export any food — for humans or pets — to the US until it gets its food safety act together,” Food & Water Watch says in the article.

RECALL: More pet owners call for China chicken jerky dog treat recall

An increasing number of pet owners are speaking out on the Internet, calling for the government to force a recall of chicken jerky dog treats from China that have been reportedly causing illness and even death in some pets that consume the treats, according to Food Safety News.
The US Food and Drug Administration tested the treats, but has not confirmed a link between the chicken jerky treats from China and the pet illnesses being reported by owners, yet owners and lawmakers continue to call for further investigation and FDA's recall of the product. On March 1, the agency released a one-page document outlining findings from 241 tests for potential contaminants and 130 tests with pending results. Though the 2012 test results are still pending, none of the results released found a conclusive link of the jerky treats to dangerous levels of contaminants.
Consumers are calling for action, as a private Facebook group called "Animal Parents Against Pet Treats Made in China!" grew over the past month from having nearly 100 members to more than 2,500 currently, and pet owners are also creating and signing online petitions to ban the products.

"A lot of these pet parents are just wringing their hands, hoping the FDA will find some sort of answer," said Poisoned Pets blogger, Mollie Morrisette. "If this was [potentially contaminated] baby formula, we would have had the answer when it started five years ago. It would all get pulled off the shelves out of caution as soon as anyone suspected it might be contaminated." 

Chinese pet food found to be mislabeled by Taipei city officials

The Taipei City Government yesterday ordered four pet food products to be taken off store shelves because of incorrect labeling, according to the Taipei Times.
City officials inspected 140 pet food products, of which four were found to be falsely labeled. According to city officials, Belicom’s tuna and beef cat food, Dobi’s beef, chicken and potato dog food; Ever Red’s beef dog food; and Maxwell’s beef dog food were improperly labeled because none of the products any trace of beef, a violation of the Commodity Labeling Act that is punishable by fines up to NT$300,000 (US$9,000). Yeh Ching-yuan, director of the city government’s Law and Regulation Commission, said petfood manufacturers would be told to make changes to the labels, and retailers would be asked to take the falsely labeled products off store shelves. 

China petfood may contain dangerous preservative levels, consumer group finds

In a sampling of pet food, the Consumers' Foundation found some dog food sold in China may contain preservatives that could affect the health of dogs if too much is consumed, according to The China Post.
The foundation found that eight out 20 dry dog food and canned dog food products purchased from retailers in September 2010 were found to contain sorbic acid. The Consumers' Foundation said the report findings are for consumer reference only, because China does not currently have laws in place that limit the amount of preservatives allowed in pet food.
One of two companies whose petfood the foundation found to contain too many preservatives claimed it is difficult to avoid having a certain level of preservatives in its products because there are no standards to follow, while the other claimed its products are safe because it follows European standards.

Chinese pet food manufacturers look to expand in growing market

As urbanization and changing lifestyles make more Chinese citizens into pet owners, China's petfood industry is expanding to meet the need for a wider-variety of pet food and pet product offerings.
Pet owners in China now have a variety of pet food brands from which to choose, making quality and branding even more important for pet food companies that want to make their products stand out in this growing marketplace.

The pet food industry in China differs from other Western markets because it still remains dominated by large, multinational companies like Mars and Nestle. In 2005, these two companies made up more than 90% of the petfood market in China, according to Chinadaily.com. However, as China's market grows, some Chinese producers are starting to produced pet food with the same quality as foreign companies, but are selling it at a lower cost, according to pet industry analyst Zhou Jianfeng of Gerson Lehrman Group.

"Chinese citizens raised nearly 150 million pets last year, but only 10% of them used processed food, indicating the enormous growth potential for the industry," Jianfeng said.
Some Chinese companies are also looking for partnerships with companies and research institutions in Europe, including Care Pet Food, based in China's Sichuan province. Care Pet Food had a 30% share of the domestic market for petfood in 2010 and also started to export its products to Europe, Southeast Asia and other overseas markets. Li Zenggui, general manager, said that European companies have more experience in petfood production with decades of research, but that Chinese companies know more about the demands of Chinese pet owners.
"By combining these two strengths we can ensure that the petfood produced not only has a high nutritional value, but also conforms to the requirements of domestic pet owners," Zenggui said. "Despite their early entry, many foreign companies do not have research and development centers in China and therefore lack first-hand knowledge of the Chinese market."
Nory Pet, a petfood company established in 2002 in Shanghai, specializes in producing petfood with Chinese herbal medicine as one of its main ingredients. The director of the company's brand promotion department, Yang Qingfeng, said the company hopes to increase its 7% market share in 2010 to 10% over the next five years, as it looks to expand overseas. 
"The pet food industry started relatively late in China and most of the domestic manufacturers are unknown in the overseas markets. This is a major obstacle for market expansion," Yang said.  "We will enhance our marketing awareness and learn brand management experience from our foreign competitors."
Despite these obstacles, pet food market analyst Jianfeng said he expects China's annual petfood sales to reach 50 billion yuan (US$7.8 billion) in the next five years, continuing to be one of the fastest growing consumer goods industries in China.  

RECALL: AVMA issues alert for chicken jerky treats from China

In June, the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association notified the American Veterinary Medical Association that CVMA had received reports of Fanconi syndrom-like symptoms in dogs, similar to those cases reported in 2007 by AVMA that were found to be associated with chicken jerky treats made in China.
AVMA issued an alert to its members, recommending vigilance for any suspected cases in the US, as well as to state veterinary medical associations and allied organizations. In the alert, AVMA said it has not received any recent reports from US veterinarians about potential toxicities from chicken jerky treats and that AVMA has not yet determined the extent of the problem.
Visit AVMA's website for more information on the jerky treat alert.

China aims to restrict imported petfood

China’s State Council recently released the revised draft of the Administrative Rules of Feed and Feed Additives to address the issue of melamine contamination in petfood in the country.
However, the legislation explicitly aims to restrict the direct sale of imported petfood and feed additives by foreign enterprises and individuals. This, and other restrictions included in the draft on foreign suppliers, has more to do with protecting state-owned enterprises than enhancing petfood safety, according to China Research Intelligence.

China to regulate petfood

The Executive Yuan of China has passed the eighth draft amendment to its Animal Protection Law to regulate petfood products and suppliers, according to The China Post.
The draft states that petfood manufacturers, processors and importers will be under the regulation of the government, have to register their products and provide proof of their products' safety.