Fido and Fluffy Drive Corn Demand Too

While it might not be your first thought as a corn demand driver, let it be your second. Pet food contains corn too!  According to a study by Decision Innovation Solutions (DIS), the corn industry moved 1,958,061 tons of corn, valued at a total of $438 million, via pet food.

The study revealed that corn and corn gluten meal are the top two most used plant-based ingredients in pet food products. Corn is the dominant plant-based carbohydrate at 1,283,674 tons and corn gluten meal is the dominant plant-based protein ingredient at 476,649 tons on an annual basis.

The American love for our pets, and their changing status as “family,” has created a multi-million-dollar industry in which farmers can take part. The need for pet foods at all price points allows for many recipes and different inclusion rates of plant-based proteins and plant-based energy sources.

According to the study (where pet food is defined only as dog and cat food), farm and mill-based ingredients make up 46.8 percent of the ingredient tonnage, but only 20.1 percent of the ingredient value. Farm and mill-based ingredients include corn and processed corn products, but also include dairy and egg products, fruits, herbs, nuts and some other products.

The study also makes the point that the production and marketing of pet food is not that dissimilar from the production and marketing of human food. We can draw correlations then between consumers demanding fresh ingredients for their pets and willing to pay that higher price and consumers demanding the niche food for their own families (“natural,” “non-GMO,” “organic,” “hormone-free,” and others) and paying well for it.

 The opportunity for corn farmers will be to consider the consumers buying lower priced pet foods that often contain plant-based proteins and carbohydrate sources or to elevate the perception of corn in a pet diet as a preferred protein or carbohydrate source that consumers are willing to pay for.

TN Corn and its partners at the National Corn Growers Association will be investigating new opportunities to grow this pet food market based on the results of the DIS study to capitalize on what has been an uninvestigated demand opportunity for corn farmers.