China consumption

With a history of dog eating, especially in lean times, China hasn’t always been a haven for pets. Pet keeping was branded as bourgeois after the communists swept to power in 1949. But in the past few decades, as Chinese citizens have become wealthier, pet ownership has soared. In fact, China has the second-largest pet market in the world, behind only the US, says Cai Xiaodong, general manager of Royal Canin in China. The pet food producer is a unit of Mars, an American global food giant that also produces the Pedigree and Whiskas brands of dog and cat food. Cai told the Shanghai-based online news site Thepaper.cn that Mars planned to invest more than $100 million in a new pet food factory