just-food s China market columnist Peter Peverelli digs into the country s growing pet-food market.
Due to rising living standards and urbanisation, phenomena referred to as empty-nest youth and empty-nest elderly have soared in China.
The former will strike many western readers as odd, as empty-nest syndrome is typically linked to the elderly. However, remember the subject of the previous Eye on China column the growing number of Chinese young adults living on their own. They enjoy a level of freedom their parents and earlier ancestors had not even dreamed about but they are culturally still Chinese, with a communitarian inclination.
If you are not ready for regularly sharing your home with another person but still would like a companion, then a pet is an attractive alternative. The number of these empty-nest youths in China is expected to reach 92 million this year. This comes on top of the more than 250m Chinese aged 60 and above, who traditionally more often own pets.