Dry pet food market trends in India: kibble formats, positioning and what they mean for new brands

01The dry pet food market in India

India’s kibble category is large, concentrated and still expanding. For a new brand, the question is less “is there demand?” than “where does my product fit?”. This guide sizes the market, shows how kibble format and positioning interact, and sets out what each trend means for a brand entering the category.

Why kibble leads the category

A Government of Canada market report, using Euromonitor data, puts India’s pet food retail value at US$629.6 million in 2023. Dog food accounted for US$539.0 million (85.6%) of that, and dry food for 89.6% of dog food sales ¹. India had 38.5 million pets in 2023, of which 33.6 million were dogs ¹. Cat food was US$89.8 million (14.3%), a smaller but separate opportunity. In our reading, kibble leads on ambient storage and cost per feeding; the report itself gives no reason.

Table 1. India pet food indicators. Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Euromonitor International data ¹.

Treat any single pet food market size figure with care. IMARC, a commercial research firm, puts India’s dog food market at US$2.9 billion for 2025 ³, several times the 2023 retail figure above. Scope and method change the number, so quote one source, with its year and what it covers.

02Growth drivers: humanisation and D2C

Commercial reports list premiumisation, humanisation, e-commerce and direct-to-consumer sales as the main trends in the India dog food market ³. The best consumer evidence comes from the US. In a survey of 206 US pet owners published in 2026, health benefit claims ranked highest, followed by nutrition claims and then price. Owners who strongly “humanise” their pets placed less weight on price ². The sample was small, recruited online and mostly aged 25 to 34, so read it as an indicator of pet humanisation, not an Indian measurement.

For D2C brands, the practical point is that the claim and the pack reach the buyer with no shelf or retailer to explain them. A claim has to stand on its own.

03Kibble formats by segment

A kibble format is the result of formulation and process. In seven dog diets that each used one starch source, tuber-based diets gave lower bulk density and higher expansion, size and hardness than cereal and pulse diets, while pea gave less expanded kibble with fewer pores ⁵. Shape matters unevenly. Dogs under 10 kg showed no significant preference between cross-shaped and round kibble, dogs over 10 kg ate more of the cross-shaped kibble, and cats can be sensitive to small changes in shape or texture ⁶.

Table 2. Format levers by segment. The shape studies used different diets for each size group, so treat the result as indicative. See starch in kibble for how each starch behaves.

04Positioning: premium, grain-free and clean label

Premium positioning rests on proof. In a South Korean study of 96 commercial dog and cat foods, 82.3% of labels matched laboratory analysis for seven mandatory nutrients ⁴, so a premium claim invites a test. Our audit of Indian dog food labels found similar gaps.

Grain-free shows the risk of positioning on exclusion alone. In its 2019 update, FDA reported that 93% of products named in canine dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) reports contained peas and/or lentils, and that the issue “may involve multiple factors”. FDA has said adverse-event reports alone do not establish a causal link, and it has issued no update since December 2022 ⁷. Grain-free and clean-label claims should therefore sit on formulation evidence. Nutritional adequacy claims should be made against a recognised standard; see our grain-free and DCM evidence review.

05Dry vs wet: where the market is splitting

Wet dog food was only US$4.8 million in 2023, under 1% of dog food sales, against US$482.7 million for dry ¹. In India the split is a premium question, not a volume one. Brands commonly add wet or fresh lines as premium extensions, with dry as the volume line, but we found no India data showing how fast those formats are growing. Buy a current report for the exact split before building a business case on it.

06What the trends mean for new brands

07Questions brands ask

Sources

1. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (2024). Sector trend analysis: pet food trends in India. Market intelligence report, Euromonitor International data. Source ↗
2. Rombach M, Dean DL (2026). Exploring predictors of US consumers’ pet food preferences: spoiling them one bite at a time! Pets 3(1):8. Source ↗
3. IMARC Group (2026). India dog food market: report overview. Page updated 24 September 2026. Source ↗
4. Cho H-W, Lee MY, Lee W-D, Lee S-Y, Kim KH, So K-M (2026). Nutritional evaluation of commercial dog and cat foods based on key nutrient requirements. Animals 16(6):909. Source ↗
5. Kaelle GCB, Bastos TS, de Souza RBMdS, Fernandes EL, Santos LNA, de Oliveira SG, Félix AP (2024). Starch sources and their influence on extrusion parameters, kibble characteristics and palatability of dog diets. Italian Journal of Animal Science 23(1):388–396. Source ↗
6. Le Guillas G, Vanacker P, Salles C, Labouré H (2024). Insights to study, understand and manage extruded dry pet food palatability. Animals 14(7):1095. Source ↗
7. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2022). FDA investigation into potential link between certain diets and canine dilated cardiomyopathy. Page last updated 23 December 2022. Source ↗

Evidence reviewed by the Guires Pet Nutrition Lab scientific team. This article is general information for product developers and is not legal or veterinary advice.