KARACHI: Waggles, among Pakistan’s first locally manufactured pet food brands, is planning to begin exports to Saudi Arabia and the Middle East by the end of this year, its owner said last week, after his company secured distribution partnerships in Riyadh and Jeddah last year.
Pakistan’s pet food market has largely relied on imported food, which has faced high taxes as a non-essential item, although last year the import duty was reduced by five percentage points to 40 percent.
Pakistan imported around 2,894,770 kilograms of pet food in 2024, valued at $3,015,810, from the US, the UK, China, Germany, France, Thailand, the UAE and other nations, according to the World Bank trade statistics.
Rafae Dossal, Waggles founder and chief executive officer, says they started production of dog and cat food in 2020 to reduce reliance on imports and now his firm is planning to go global through its partnership with Petzone, which provides pet supplies, services and solutions in Riyadh and Jeddah.
“So, we completed our [ISO and Hasib] certifications back in 2023 and ever since then, our export efforts have been amplifying, and we’ve been able to communicate with distributors based out of Saudi Arabia specifically, and have sent out consignments to Jeddah,” Dossal said.
