The Rise Of The Pet CBD Industry

Projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 58.9% from 2021 to 2028, the global pet CBD industry is expected to become a 5 billion dollar industry by the end of the decade.

That growth is more than double what’s expected to be seen on the human side. However, food companies like Mars and Nestlé and skincare companies like Sephora, who are all excited to enter the world of CBD, might have something to say about that.

Speaking of the human side of CBD, where it has struggled a bit off and on due to the pandemic, the pandemic has only been a boom for pet CBD.

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The mass increase in pet adoptions around the world due to the lockdown has driven the sale of CBD for pets to new highs, causing many to readjust their now conservative estimates about pet CBD’s future.

Narrowing our look at the U.S. pet CBD market, before the pandemic, Nielsen predicted pet CBD sales would grow from $175 million to $225 million by 2025. Now they are projecting nearly $500 million by 2025 — more than double. This growth is in spite of hemp CBD prices falling an average of $1 too.

This isn’t the first time CBD has seen rapid and unexpected growth. In 2018, CBD products derived from industrial hemp plants (defined as cannabis plants that contain no more than 0.3% THC by dried weight) were federally legalized in the United States. As a result, we saw CBD sales in 2019 in the U.S. grow over 10 times the sales we saw in 2018. That took many by surprise, but it was just the start of the rise of the pet CBD industry that’s changing the way we care for our pets. Let’s explore further.

This article is sponsored by Innovet Pet; become an Innovet ambassador and help raise awareness about the ways CBD can benefit our loveable pets.

What CBD Offers Pets And Their Owners

When you take a look at what CBD can offer our pets, it’s pretty easy to see why dare we say it could become even more popular for them than for us. Just like us, it can help with bouts of anxiety, issues with lasting/chronic pain, calm upset digestive systems, mend joint pain, and on.

You can purchase CBD without a medical prescription and the side effects from it are outstandingly low, especially when care with potential drug interactions are accounted for. With our dogs and cats experiencing little daily hiccups in their health just like us, but without the ability to tell us what’s exactly wrong, knowing what treatments to provide can be tricky.

With CBD’s ability to boost regulatory health and focus on supporting the immune and nervous system, for many pet owners, CBD is the answer for dealing with all those daily bumps in the road.

This has actually made CBD for general wellness support more popular in pet-owning circles — if you give CBD to your pet, surveys find you’re very likely to use it for yourself. Another reason CBD stands to fare even better in the pet market than ours is due to the other cannabis market, marijuana.

Where both hemp CBD and marijuana act on the endocannabinoid system, one of three systems involved in promoting homeostasis, marijuana offers us something CBD doesn’t, and that’s an abundance of THC.

Unlike many other mammals like canines, humans tolerate THC significantly better, and with more potent health benefits (albeit it introduces side effects), many will choose it over CBD, which our pets do not have the option of.

CBD being most popular for those that can’t tolerate THC shouldn’t come as much of a surprise because it’s the thing that kicked off CBD’s popularity and what paved its way to becoming legal in much of the world.

CBD’s first major headlines were all focused on its ability to help treat drug-resistant seizure disorders like Dravet Syndrome in young children.

As well, when hemp CBD became federally legal in the United States, many states had already legalized CBD solely due to its success in treating these rare seizure disorders without causing a high like marijuana.

Insight Into Buying Pet CBD

Like other pet products, buying CBD online is increasingly becoming the main way people shop for their pets — even more so for supplements and vitamins like CBD. With eCommerce sites estimated to grow at a whopping 9.4% — currently representing 13% of the total purchase channel — there is still room in the United States for those hungry for the possibilities with CBD.

One of the big reasons CBD is frequently bought online vs. in brick-and-mortar stores is due to its legalization happening in successions. Besides giving some Pet CBD brands a head start,

allowing a sizable handful of companies to dominate the CBD market, many who buy CBD turn to online shopping because the saturation of the pet CBD market has caused a wave of illegitimate products.

This has made consumers cautious about the CBD they purchase; they want to see those lab results (presented through a Certificate of Analysis) and an overwhelming abundance of product reviews.

CBD Around The World

While many think of North America and Western Europe when they think of popular places to use CBD, these two places have matured quite a bit and are no longer leading the pack in growth by region. Today, CBD growth is happening the fastest in the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions.

CBD is legal in Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, The United Kingdom, Uruguay, and USA (federal law).

The following have legalized CBD for medical purposes only: Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Israel, Malta, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, South Korea, and The Cayman Islands.