Chinese New Year's Eve feast for pet sells well during Spring Festival

The Chinese New Year's Eve feast for pets has seen strong demand during the Spring Festival in the Year of the Snake. Many online and offline pet stores, as well as pet influencers, introduced a diverse range of festive meal sets, featuring gourmet dishes and eye-catching, festive packaging.

Preparing the Chinese New Year's Eve feast is an important festive custom symbolizing family reunion and togetherness. Now, some young pet owners are extending this tradition by creating customized New Year's Eve feasts for their furry companions. Chen Xiaoting, who was born in the 2000s, added lamb chops, dumplings, meatballs, chicken and vegetable rice balls in the menu for her two dogs, and sent it to a pet fresh food store for preparation.

A pet food store in Jinan, East China’s Shandong Province introduced a dinner set priced at 168 yuan (roughly $23), featuring shrimp balls, dumplings, cake, and small cookies. “Our pet meal sets have been in high demand and we plan to expand our offerings with pet-friendly zongzi (rice dumplings) for the Dragon Boat Festival and mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival,” said store owner Li Shanwei.

On Chinese social media app RedNote, many influencers share videos on making “pet fresh food” such as dumplings with chicken and broccoli fillings. 

The pet food industry is projected to experience rapid growth, driven by not only seasonal specialty foods, but also tailored products catering to pets' age, breed, and health needs, said Li Yang, associate professor from the School of Business of Shandong Normal University

Li Yang said that the integration of the pet industry with other sectors will create new opportunities, for example, "pet+tourism” – pet-friendly travel routes and accommodations to meet the growing demand of pet-owning travelers.