Pulse growers’ search for diversified, non-traditional markets has led them to man’s best friend.
“Pet food has become a really major buyer and market of interest for us, both in North America, as well as in emerging markets like China,” Jeff English, vice-president of marketing and communications for Pulse Canada, told a recent Alberta Pulse Growers annual meeting in Taber.
“People spend a lot of money on their pets.… I’ve been able to walk through Costco and see the cost of pet food and kind of do a double take. People don’t blink (at the cost).”
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Why it Matters: With a quarter of a trillion dollars at stake in the near future for the pet food market, it can be an appealing non-traditional market for pulse crops.
Pet ownership has surged during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were isolated in their homes and looking for companionship.
More than two million people adopted a pet during the the United Kingdom’s pandemic lockdowns, while in Australia, more than a million pets were adopted during the height of the pandemic.
In China, a relaxation of pet ownership regulations and falling birth rates are additional contributors to an increase in pet ownership. It increased 113 per cent between 2014 and 2019 and is now rivaling the United States in pet ownership overall.
Elsewhere in Asia, pet ownership in South Korea grew from five million to 7.5 million between 2014 and 2018, representing 50 per cent growth.
Families in the U.S., Brazil, the European Union and China account for more than a half billion dogs and cats, while more more than half the world is estimated to have a pet at home.
The rise of the middle class in developing countries and declining birth rates in North America among millennials and Gen Z have seen an increase in disposable income that can be used to support pet ownership.
The world pet food market was US$197.85 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach $271.49 billion by 2030.
“So the challenge for our team, with respect to that, is how we can factor pulses into a high-value size of the product that can go into that food,” said English.
“We hired a pet food specialist who lives and breathes this every day to understand the challenges of the market. We’ve done an analysis on which countries to target and work to try to see how we can factor pulses into that food because it is a high- value market. Our goal is to have bidders, and the more bidders, the higher the value, the greater return back from the farmgate.”
Pulse Canada has done life-cycle assessments on Canadian peas, hoping to use them as a way to market to North American and European pet owners interested in the environment and reducing carbon emissions. English said peas are effectively carbon neutral.
Pulses are considered a more sustainable protein source with their lower water and carbon footprint and their ability to fix nitrogen in the soil, reducing the need for fertilizers.
The higher fibre content in some pulse varieties can contribute to satiety, weight management and improved blood sugar regulation in pets, along with increased digestibility.
Dried peas are the most used pulse in pet food, followed by chickpeas, lentils and other pet food-approved dried beans. They can be a sustainable source of nutrients in pet food if formulated appropriately.
Pulse Canada has also been working with animal nutritionists to develop materials in other countries’ native languages so companies can familiarize themselves with Canadian pulses for feed in the livestock industry.
“We’ve established a carbon protocol for companies that are interested. We have three major livestock companies who have expressed interest in participating with us around how peas can reduce carbon emissions in feed rations,”said English.
“A big part of carbon emissions that are related to or associated with livestock production is from feed. Our studies show that incorporating peas into (rations) will reduce the overall carbon footprint of the carcass by 2o per cent.”
There have been concerns that pulses have been linked to dilated cardiomyopathy in dogs, but recent studies have found dogs fed diets containing up to 45 per cent pulse ingredients and no grains showed no indication of heart issues.
