In January, Istanbul gathered the core forces of the global pet industry as the GlobalPETS Forum 2026 was successfully held here. The team of China International Pet Show (CIPS) attended the event as scheduled, and explored the industry's development direction amid changes with 280 industry peers from Europe and various regional markets.

This is a professional industry forum with a highly concentrated level of participants in terms of scale. Attendees were mainly senior management from brand owners, retail groups, manufacturing enterprises and industry service institutions, of which more than 80% are long-term participants, and many distinguished guests have taken part in the forum for more than 10 consecutive years. For this reason, the on-site discussions were more inclined to practical judgments based on hands-on experience, rather than mere presentation of viewpoints.

This article will sort out the consensus and trends emerging from on-site exchanges, focusing on several core topics repeatedly mentioned at this year's forum.

01 Changes in the macro environment have become the default premise for discussions

At this year's forum, changes in the macro environment ran through all sessions of discussions as an invisible main line. Although the specific challenges faced by different regions vary, the rising uncertainty has become a common understanding of all attendees.

Many participants from Europe and surrounding markets mentioned that the changes in the external environment over the past two to three years have been continuously affecting enterprises' investment rhythms and market judgments. Relevant discussions focused more on how to respond to fluctuations, rather than simply pursuing growth.

02 Technology and digitalization have shifted from conceptual discussions to business-level practices

Discussions on technology and digitalization showed a distinct implementation-oriented trend this year. While topics related to AI and data were still frequently mentioned, they have long gone beyond the category of "trend concepts" and were more placed in actual business scenarios to explore their applicability and value in practical implementation.

The application directions involved in on-site discussions mainly focused on market analysis, content generation and internal collaboration. Compared with the discussion method that focused on trend judgment a few years ago, the exchanges this year obviously paid more attention to practical usability and efficiency improvement.

03 Regional differences in retail and channel structures have further widened

Retail and channel structures remained one of the key topics mentioned repeatedly. Participants generally agreed that the differences in consumption structures and channel evolution across regional markets are expanding.

In some mature markets, online channels have become the basic option for pet consumption; while in other regions, offline physical stores are still the core scenarios for providing consumption experience and services. Many discussions focused on how to rationally allocate channel resources and optimize layout based on regional characteristics.

04 Sustainable development topics have returned more to the level of rules and compliance

Changes have also taken place in the way of discussing sustainable development topics. Compared with previous exchanges that focused on concepts, more content this year centered on the understanding of rules and compliance requirements.

It was mentioned in the forum discussions that relevant regulations have been successively implemented in more than 60 countries, exerting a continuous impact on packaging, supply chains and external communication methods. Many participants believed that sustainable development has gradually shifted from a value choice to an institutional requirement.

During various exchanges at the forum, many international brand owners and manufacturing enterprises stated that they hope to gain a more systematic understanding of the structure and supply capacity of China's pet industry through the China International Pet Show (CIPS). Meanwhile, buyers and channel partners from different regional markets have clearly expressed their interest in visiting the exhibition to seek cooperation partners and conduct procurement matching.

Focusing on these feedbacks, relevant exchanges further centered on how to achieve more efficient supply and demand matching at the exhibition site. In the follow-up work, the CIPS team will also continuously integrate these frontline demands and judgments into international communications and exhibition organization, creating more direct and actionable communication opportunities for both buyers and sellers.

The CIPS team has always firmly believed that in-depth face-to-face communication is the key to understanding the logic of different markets and grasping the pulse of the industry. We welcome all industry partners to discuss relevant topics with us at any time and embrace the new phase of the industry together.

*This article is compiled solely based on public information and on-site exchange experience. We always respect the content boundaries of the organizer and guest speakers regarding the specific speeches and data presented at the forum.