The Vietnam pet food market: how big it is, who supplies it, and where it is sold

A pet food brand looking at Vietnam finds two facts that seem not to fit together. Vietnam is a pet food factory for the world: it exported more than USD 132 million of dog and cat food in 2025, four fifths of it to the United States. And Vietnamese owners buy a large part of their own pet food from abroad: imports were USD 66 million the same year, against a domestic market of USD 124 million.

Both facts are in the same report, a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service market note from July 2026, and both are true. The factories mostly make for export; the premium bags on Vietnamese shelves mostly come from Thailand. For a foreign brand, that split decides more than the headline growth rate does: who it will compete with, what duty it pays, and which channel it has to win first.

This piece sets out what the size figures measure, why the number of pets is uncertain, where the imports come from, what the tariff is, where pet food is sold, who is already on the shelf, which rules apply, and how origin changes the landed price.

How big is the market? Read the definition first

The best-documented figure comes from Euromonitor, as cited by the USDA: USD 124 million in 2025, up 71% over five years, which the report ranks among the fastest growth rates in the world. The USDA states exactly what it counts: dog and cat food classified under HS 230910, put up for retail sale.

Other figures circulate, and they are larger:

The first row is the one to build on, because it is the only one whose scope can be checked. The press figure may be a broader Euromonitor category, such as pet food plus treats and other products, or a different year’s data; without the definition it cannot be reconciled with the first row, and averaging the two produces a number nobody measured.

What every source agrees on is the direction. The USDA describes owners “allocating greater budgets toward nutritious pet food rather than repurposing human food”, and spending on treats, supplements and services rising with it. No source we found publishes the share of pets fed commercial food against home-cooked food, which is the number that would say how much room the category still has. An entry case that needs that share has to measure it.

How many pets: 7 million or 14 million?

Sizing from the number of animals is the other common route, and here the sources differ by a factor of two.

• The USDA report says Vietnam is home to about 14 million dogs and cats as of 2026, up 26% on five years earlier. It does not name the source.
• An official of the Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health, quoted by Tuổi Trẻ News in November 2025 in a piece on rabies control, put the national figure at about 7 million, with about 56% vaccinated against rabies in 2024–25. The same piece cites more than 310,000 dogs and cats in Ho Chi Minh City.

Neither is a census. The official figure comes out of a vaccination programme, which counts animals that local authorities know about; the larger figure may include animals that never see a vet. A sizing that multiplies pets by spend per pet inherits the whole gap: the same spending assumption gives two answers, one double the other.

Ownership surveys point the same way as the market data without settling the count. TGM Research’s 2024 online survey of 851 adults found 74.5% of respondent households owning at least one pet, up from 67% a year earlier; an online panel of urban adults is not the country, and the figure should not be applied to the national population. Rakuten Insight’s 2021 Asia survey had dogs ahead of cats among Vietnamese respondents. We found no source tracking the cat-versus-dog mix over time, though it matters directly for which product range to lead with.

Most of the premium shelf crossed a border

Vietnam’s pet food trade runs in both directions, and the two flows are different businesses. According to Trade Data Monitor figures in the USDA report:

The export side is factories serving foreign brands and buyers; the USDA names CP Group, ADM and Vietnovo among the leading exporters. The import side is what Vietnamese owners buy. Thailand’s shipments nearly doubled from USD 17 million in 2021 to USD 33 million in 2025, and China’s rose from USD 1.3 million to USD 10.2 million. South Korea’s declined, which the USDA attributes to Korean pet food investors now manufacturing in Vietnam.

Import values are measured at the border and the market value at retail, so the two cannot be divided into a clean import share. But USD 66 million at the border against USD 124 million at the till means imported product, once importer and retailer margins are added, plausibly accounts for most of the shelf value. That is our reading, not a published figure. It changes the competitive question: a new foreign brand is not entering against local producers so much as against Thai-made global brands already in every pet shop.

The production side is moving too. The USDA reports that manufacturers have begun turning towards the domestic market and that new investors are building factories specifically to serve Vietnamese buyers, including a pet food plant inaugurated in Ho Chi Minh City in 2026 by Pet Like Park, a pet superstore operator. Local manufacture is a real option for a brand with volume, and a real competitor for one without it.

Tariffs: who pays seven percent

Dog and cat food for retail sale falls under HS 2309.10. The most-favoured-nation duty is 7%; the USDA cites it as the rate US exporters face, against 9% in Thailand. Suppliers from Thailand, China, the EU and South Korea ship duty-free under trade agreements, the USDA notes; Vietnam’s published tariff schedule also shows 0% under ATIGA, EVFTA, CPTPP and RCEP.

For most foreign brands this means origin matters more than nationality. A European brand that ships from its own plant in the EU enters at 0%; the same brand shipping from a plant in the United States pays 7%; a US brand that makes its range in Thailand enters at 0% under ATIGA, provided the goods meet the rules of origin and carry the right certificate. The USDA’s own observation is that price alone does not explain the US share of 0.5%: brands from Europe, Canada, South Korea and Japan at similar prices have done better, by spending on promotion, advertising and retailer incentives.

Confirm the rate for the exact eight-digit line and origin with a customs broker before building a price. Tariff lines inside 2309.10 split by product type, and preferential rates depend on paperwork as much as on geography.

Where pet food is sold: the pet shop first

Euromonitor’s channel figures, as reported by the USDA, describe a market that still runs through specialist shops:

The chains are small next to that 70%. Pet Mart’s branch page lists 19 stores across Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong and Da Nang; Paddy Pet Shop opened its fifth Ho Chi Minh City branch in May 2026. Most pet shop sales therefore go through independent stores, a fragmented trade that a brand reaches through a distributor, not through a handful of key accounts. That is our inference from the store counts, but it shapes the whole plan: the distributor’s coverage of independent shops in two or three cities matters more than any single listing.

E-commerce is smaller here than in beauty or supplements, but the same pet shops and supermarkets run their own online stores, so the channel line is blurrier than the table suggests. A brand that launches only on marketplaces is starting in the 7.5%, not the 70%. How to judge a distributor’s real coverage, and what to put in the agreement, is in how to choose a distributor in Vietnam.

Who a new brand competes with

No public source publishes brand shares from sales data. The nearest is TGM Research’s 2023 survey, which asked owners which brand they bought most: Royal Canin 20%, SmartHeart 10.9% and Me-O 10.6%; TGM did not publish the sample size or fieldwork dates on that page. SmartHeart and Me-O are Thai brands; Royal Canin, a Mars brand, is among the products the USDA describes as Thai-manufactured and well established.

Việt Nam News, in May 2026, named Mars Petcare, Nestlé Purina, Royal Canin and Hill’s as dominant in premium food, and The Pet Vietnam, a fresh pâté maker, as the local manufacturer it profiled. The USDA describes premium dry dog and cat food as “highly competitive” and points newcomers towards segments where they can be distinct: functional treats, therapeutic diets, high-protein, organic and gut-health products.

The practical reading for an entry plan: leading with a mainstream dry range means competing on shelf space and promotion budgets with brands that are made next door, enter duty-free and fund retailer incentives. Leading with a narrower range that a vet or a pet shop assistant can explain is cheaper to launch and easier to defend, and it is also where the USDA expects growth.

The rules that apply to pet food

Vietnam’s Law on Animal Husbandry of 2018 defines animal feed broadly, as any product animals eat or drink, and defines kept animals to include animals beyond livestock and poultry. On that reading, which practitioners apply but which we did not find stated for pet food in a primary text, dog and cat food sits inside the feed regime. In outline, that regime requires product information to be published on the ministry’s portal before a product circulates, and imported feed to pass state quality inspection at the border.

Three cautions. First, the details differ between sources: practitioner guides disagree on which pet products can be self-declared and which, such as treats or supplements, need registration and appraisal. Second, the ministry that runs the regime changed in March 2025, when the agriculture ministry was merged into the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, so older guides name offices that no longer exist in that form. Third, labelling rules for imported goods apply on top: manufacturer, importer, usage, storage and dates in Vietnamese.

None of this is complicated, but all of it sits ahead of the first shipment, and the importer of record usually holds the filings. Who that is, and what happens to the filings if the distribution agreement ends, belongs in the contract. Regulatory filings are for Vietnamese counsel or a specialist consultant; the plan only needs to carry them as dependencies with realistic time attached.

A worked example: how origin changes the landed price

All numbers below are invented for illustration, except the duty rates. A premium cat food brand can supply Vietnam from its plant in the EU or from a contract plant in the United States. The ex-works cost of one bag is 100 in either case, and freight and insurance add 8.

The duty is 7.6 on the bag, but the shelf price difference is 13.4, about 7%, because each margin down the chain is charged on the higher cost. VAT, left out here because sources disagree on the rate for this product, would widen it again. A 7% gap on the shelf is enough to put the US-made bag in a different price band from an identical EU-made one.

Two things follow. The supply origin is a pricing decision, not a logistics detail, and it belongs in the entry plan before the range is fixed. And the gap is not fatal on its own: the USDA’s point is that similar-priced brands from other origins have done better through promotion and retailer support, so the duty saving is worth most to a brand that will spend it in the shop. How to place a product in the price band its category already has is set out in pricing consumer goods in Vietnam.

Where the figures in this article come from

• USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, “Vietnam Pet Food Market”, GAIN report VM2026-0027, Ho Chi Minh City, 27 July 2026: market value and growth (citing Euromonitor International), the 14 million pet figure, channel shares (citing Euromonitor), imports, exports and partner shares (citing Trade Data Monitor), the 7% tariff, Pet Like Park’s factory, and the segments it recommends. We read the full report.
• Tuổi Trẻ News, 28 November 2025: about 7 million dogs and cats nationally and rabies vaccination coverage, quoting the Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health; Ho Chi Minh City figures.
• TGM Research, Pet Humanization Insights Vietnam 2024 (online, 851 respondents, fieldwork June–July 2024) and Pet Care Vietnam 2023 (brand most bought; sample size not published).
• Rakuten Insight, pet ownership in Asia, January 2021, as tabulated by Databoks and SeasiaStats.
• VnEconomy and Tạp chí Công Thương, 22 April 2026; Đại biểu Nhân dân, 25 March 2026; Việt Nam News, 21 May 2026. Vendor estimates: IMARC Group (updated August 2025) and Expert Market Research (updated September 2026).
• Pet Mart branch list, accessed October 2026; Kenh14, 23 May 2026, on Paddy Pet Shop’s fifth branch.
• Tariffs: Vietnam’s 2026 import tariff schedule for HS 2309.10 as published by caselaw.vn; MFN 7% corroborated by the USDA. Regulation: Law on Animal Husbandry 32/2018/QH14, Article 2 definitions and the product information provisions.

The worked example uses invented costs and margins; only the duty rates are real.

Where this work stops

MWY does not import, distribute or sell pet food, file product information or customs paperwork, or give legal or tax advice, and takes no commission from importers, distributors, retailers or platforms.

What we do in Go-to-Market Strategy is put the questions above into the entry plan before money is committed: the segment sized from the channel up rather than from a pet count, the supply origin and its effect on the shelf price, the distributor’s real coverage of independent pet shops, and a launch calendar that carries the filings as dependencies. A brand that first needs the market measured can buy that step on its own: Vietnam Market Research is six weeks on one product line, ending in a written answer on whether Vietnam deserves a budget. How pet care fits the wider consumer and retail picture is on our consumer and retail page.