US retail price data for April 2023 showed pet food prices were 14.6% higher year over year (YOY) compared to April 2022. This represented just a slight increase over March 2023’s 14.4% pet food inflation yet was still almost three times the US national inflation rate—as shown by the consumer price index (CPI)—of 4.9% YOY. So the pet food figure is definitely a good news/bad news story: good that it seems to have steadied but bad that it’s still so painfully high.
John Gibbons, aka the Pet Business Professor, compiled and analyzed retail and producer price data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. For pet care overall, inflation in April came in at 10.4% YOY, more than twice as high as the CPI and a full percentage point over March’s 9.4% YOY. Besides pet food, veterinary services continue to drive inflation in the overall pet care sector.
Good news on the pet food producer price front…
Focusing on the good news part of the pet food inflation number, the pet food producer price index (PPI), or what you as pet food manufacturers are paying for ingredients, packaging, other supplies and functions, was 13.3% YOY for April 2023 vs .