Pet care a booming business in Panama

Panamanians currently spend 40% more than they did in 2009 on grooming, veterinary services, accessories, hotels and other services for their pets.

More and more stores are opening their doors to sell animal products, taking advantage of the high purchasing power and the increase in numbers of foreigners residing in the country says LatinAmericaData

These shops offer all kinds of services for animals such as grooming, veterinary formalities for travel, hotels, gyms and spas. Yamileth González, manager at veterinary Knino, said the market has been growing steadily and more and more customers are no longer thinking of their pets as animals but as another beloved house member.

Capital.com.pa reports: "Supermarkets in the country have also taken advantage of this boom in the market. The polling company Dichter & Neira periodically conducts a study called the Retail Performance Tracker (RPT) with major supermarkets in the country and Jeanne Champsaur, customer service manager and the person responsible for leading the study, said the latest version compared what Panamanians invest in today with what they did in 2009 in this segment and the results have revealed an interesting fact. "

Champsaur said "we can say that almost 40% of us invest more in our pets in this channel", the official believes that this increase is a reflection of the good economic times in the country and which has caused adjustments to consumption habits .