Meats, other than fish, are the second most imported cat food, with over 200,000 tonnes imported at a cost of $396m. Thailand is the source of most of our seafood-based cat food, accounting for 48 percent of the $183m spent since 1990. With millions more cattle than cats in the country, it's not surprising cattle food imports started exceeding cat food imports, but further indignity followed in 2013. Despite higher cat ownership in New Zealand than dog ownership, since 2013 more money has been spent per year importing food specified as dog food than cat food. There's a chance some of the food captured in the other categories ended up in a cat bowl, but based on foods explicitly specified as being for cats, the heyday of cat food dominating animal food imports is over.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 15, 2021 17:48 UTC