![]() Despite the end of the one-child policy and the government's efforts to encourage births, China's fertility rate is one of the lowest in the world.Ĭouples are being put off by the rising cost of living, housing and raising children. At a time when more and more young Chinese are delaying or even giving up on marriage and having children, many are turning to pet adoption. ![]() Nearly half of all owners are under 35, according to the latest white paper from the industry's trade association. ![]() Many of them are young with university degrees and high incomes. The Chinese market is undergoing a major transformation, driven by a new breed of owners. For Goldman Sachs, there's no doubt about it: growth looks set to be spectacular in the years ahead. Not only is the market adoption rate still limited compared with a Chinese population of 1.4 billion (16% of Chinese households own a dog or cat, compared with 25% to 40% in the USA and Europe), but the average expenditure per pet is still modest: the Chinese spend around €150 per year on each pet, almost four times less than Americans and half that of Europeans. China has more cats and dogs than the United States, but overall spending is still three times lower, the American investment bank points out in a hundred-page report published in 2021. "China's pet industry is still in its early stages," says Goldman Sachs, urging investors to take a closer look. If industry professionals and analysts are to be believed, there's no end in sight. By way of comparison, in China, since 2019, grocery products have grown by just 2% a year and laptop sales by 5%. "During and after COVID, the pet sector is experiencing one of the strongest growth rates in mass consumption, and remains one of the main focus points for strategic and financial investors," estimates PricewaterhouseCoopers in a study published in November. Pet-related spending jumped by a further 20% in 2021, building on the momentum of previous years. ![]() And this market has shown impressive resilience in recent years, despite COVID-19 and the slowdown in the country's economic growth. Their care has given rise to an economy, almost non-existent some 15 years ago, that today is worth close to €35 billion according to estimates by the China Pet Industry Association. With over 110 million dogs and cats in its cities, China already has the largest number of pets in the world, surpassing the U.S. After all, the Chinese pet market is booming, driven by young city dwellers. This cloning activity is still relatively uncommon, but Sinogene believes it has a bright future. "To maximize the chances of success, it's best to carry out the genetic sampling when the animal is still alive and young," recommends Dai Shuang Lin, a Sinogene representative. "The technology is still quite expensive, but I'm seriously thinking about it because my dog has really become an important member of my family," explains Ms. To bring their little companion back to life, some owners are prepared to break the bank as it costs between $40,000 and $60,000 for a dog and over $30,000 for a cat. The process is well-honed: skin samples are usually taken from the animal's inner thighs and, within a few weeks, Sinogene is able to isolate its DNA and fertilize an egg, which is then transplanted into a carrier female. Since then, over 500 cloned dogs and cats have been created in the company's Beijing laboratories. Sinogene made headlines in 2017 when its teams successfully cloned a beagle. But the fear was soon dispelled: "Little Juice learned quickly, and can be trained just as easily as the original Juice." "I was a little nervous at first, as cloning is a brand new, cutting-edge technology for me," says Jun. He Jun eventually found the solution by knocking on the door of Sinogene, the first Chinese biotech company to provide pet cloning services. The problem: the dog can't reproduce, having been neutered at an early age. "We were hoping to keep his excellent genes for longer," explains Jun. But as he grows older, his owner, animal tamer He Jun, worries about the stress of long shooting days and dreams of finding an understudy to match his star actor. BEIJING - Short-legged and white-haired, Juice (or "Guozhi" in Mandarin) may not be a pedigree dog, but he's got excellent learning skills and a real talent for acting.Īt nine years old, the little mongrel has already made a name for himself in dozens of Chinese film and TV productions.
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