Pet food is no longer a secondary outlet for the meat industry. Manufacturers now compete on label transparency, single-protein recipes, high meat content and alternative species. That calls for suppliers who understand not only meat, but also the product that will be made from it.
At APM Traders we have been trading frozen meat internationally for almost 30 years. We apply that experience to a fast-growing strategic line: supplying meat and fish raw materials to the pet food industry.
A market with its own rules
Pet food is governed by different regulations from food for human consumption, and every transaction has to comply with them from start to finish. Knowing those rules is what allows us to buy from the right origin and deliver without incidents.
Category 3 and human grade
Most pet food raw material moves as Category 3 animal by-products not intended for human consumption (ABP), under Regulation (EC) 1069/2009 and its implementing regulation, (EU) 142/2011. This is material from healthy animals fit for human consumption that does not enter the food chain for commercial reasons.
At the same time, premium ranges increasingly demand product fit for human consumption (“human grade”). We work in both channels, with warehouses authorised for each and the documentation and traceability each category requires.
Trade within the European Union
Most of our operations are purchases and sales within the EU. Every Category 3 shipment travels with its commercial document registered in TRACES, between registered or approved establishments at origin and destination. We coordinate that documentation with the supplying plant or warehouse and the haulier, so the customer only has to receive the goods and produce.
Imports from third countries
A growing share of the raw materials the sector needs, especially alternative species, comes from outside Europe. Importing both ABP and human-grade product into the EU requires the country and the plant of origin to be approved, the goods to travel with the corresponding official health certificate, and the consignment to pass veterinary checks at a Border Control Post on arrival.
We specialise in that entire process: we find approved plants in third countries, check that they are authorised to export to the EU, manage certification and customs clearance, and distribute the cleared product to manufacturers in Spain and the rest of Europe. Customers gain access to distant origins without taking on the risk or the paperwork of importing themselves.
Belgium, our hub for northern Europe
In addition to our base in Spain, we operate with a Belgian VAT number and a strategic third-party warehouse in Belgium. From there we serve manufacturers in neighbouring countries faster and at lower logistics cost: Benelux, France, Germany and northern Europe. Customers get the service of a local supplier with the range of origins of an international trader.
Every format, a different raw material
There is no such thing as a generic “pet food raw material”: each manufacturing process calls for different cuts, sizes and profiles. Understanding the customer’s format is what allows us to offer the right cut, not just the cheapest one.
| Format | Process | Typical raw material | What matters most to the manufacturer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extruded (dry kibble) | Cooking-extrusion at high temperature and pressure | Low-cost minces and offal, large fresh volumes… | Stable analytical profile (protein, fat, moisture) |
| Canned / wet | Cooked and sterilised in a sealed container | Lean meat, trimmings and offal: lung, liver, heart, kidney, tripe, udder… | Fixed muscle/offal ratio and no bone fragments |
| BARF | Raw, minced or in pieces, frozen | Lean meat, meaty bones, carcasses, necks, offal, green tripe, whole fish… | Impeccable microbiology and cold chain |
| Air-dried | Slow drying with air at moderate temperature | Meat, offal and ground bone; fish… | Drying yield and controlled fat |
| Freeze-dried | Freezing and vacuum drying by sublimation | Regular, lean pieces: hearts, livers, breast, salmon… | Uniform size and low fat content |
| Dehydrated treats | Oven or tunnel drying of whole pieces | Ears, tracheas, pizzles, tendons, skins, gullets… | Presentation, size and availability of the piece |
Extruded: traditional dry kibble
This is the largest format in the market. The recipe is cooked and shaped at high temperature and pressure, and the protein base is usually animal meal. However, premium ranges increasingly feature “fresh meat” on the label, and that meat enters the line as frozen MDM or offal.
Pros: long shelf life without refrigeration, low cost per serving and convenience for the consumer. Cons: the thermal process is intense and the amount of fresh meat the line can take is limited; the most demanding consumers see it as less natural. What we bring: low-cost minces and offal from every species, with a focus on continuous volume and consistent quality.
Cans and wet food
This includes cans, trays and pouches. The product is cooked and sterilised inside the pack, which ensures its preservation. It is the format that makes the best use of offal: many recipes combine lean meat or meat and fat trimmings with organs such as lung, heart, liver, kidney, tripe or udder in fixed proportions.
Pros: very high palatability (especially for cats), water intake and ease of launching single-protein recipes. Cons: higher cost per serving than kibble, heavy transport and short shelf life once opened. What we bring: the complete breakdown of a single species (minces, lean meat and all its offal), so the manufacturer can balance its recipe with a single supplier.
BARF: raw and frozen
BARF (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) is raw feeding that mimics the animal’s natural diet: lean meat, meaty bones and offal. It is sold minced or in pieces, always frozen.
Pros: minimal processing, recognisable ingredients and a very high perception of quality among committed owners. Cons: with no heat treatment, the microbiological risk rests on the raw material; regulations set strict criteria (absence of Salmonella, Enterobacteriaceae limits) and the cold chain cannot be broken at any point. Some manufacturers add high-pressure processing (HPP) as an extra barrier. What we bring: we focus on cuts with high nutritional value, usually approved for human consumption, while filtering the best offers on the market to make them affordable for genuine, premium pet food production.
Air-dried
The recipe, often with meat, offal and ground bone, is dried slowly with air at a moderate temperature until it becomes a stable, jerky-like product that needs no refrigeration. It is used as a complete food, treat or topper.
Pros: high nutrient density, high palatability, no cold chain and a very premium positioning. Cons: a slow process with high energy costs; as the water is lost, several kilos of raw material are needed for each kilo of product, so the price of meat weighs heavily on the final cost. What we bring: raw material with good drying yield and controlled fat.
Freeze-dried
The product is frozen and then dried under vacuum: the ice turns directly into vapour. It keeps its shape, colour and much of its nutrients, and can be rehydrated. It is sold as a complete food, topper or treat.
Pros: maximum nutrient retention, a light product that is stable without refrigeration, ideal for single-protein treats. Cons: investment and energy consumption are the highest of all formats; freeze-drying does not kill pathogens, so it requires very clean raw material; and fat limits the process. What we bring: pieces of uniform size, such as our custom-cut dices from APM Packers.
Dehydrated treats and natural chews
These are whole pieces dried in an oven or tunnel: ears, tracheas, pizzles, tendons, skins, snouts or diced lung. This is the segment where the lowest-value by-product becomes a high-margin product.
Pros: high margin, natural single protein, dental and enrichment benefits, and growing demand. Cons: availability is limited by anatomy (one animal gives one pizzle and two ears), the product requires consistent presentation and size, and it competes with low-cost imported finished treats. What we bring: access to scarce pieces through a wide network of plants, with specifications such as flap ears, whole defatted trachea with or without larynx, or fat-free pizzles by length and weight.
Our focus: frozen meat and fish
The pet food industry also works with processed animal ingredients: rendered fats and oils, animal meals and dried proteins, blood and plasma, hydrolysates and palatants. They are important products in many recipes, especially extruded kibble.
Our specialty today is different: frozen meat and fish raw materials, which is where we bring the most knowledge of product, origin and specification. Concentrating on them allows us to be a reference supplier in that link of the chain rather than just one more in all of them. Processed ingredients are a line we may take on in the future.
Single protein and alternative species: pet food grows more sophisticated
The pandemic accelerated a long-standing trend: more pets in homes and owners willing to care for them as members of the family. In the UK alone, 3.2 million households acquired a pet after the pandemic began, most of them young owners aged 16 to 34.
Today, according to the European pet food industry federation (FEDIAF), 140 million European households, 49%, live with at least one pet. Europe has 306 million companion animals and a pet food market worth €29.4 billion, with 8.6 million tonnes produced (2024 data). Treats already account for 27% of the value of dog food, and wet food for 60% of the value of cat food.
From “chicken kibble” to a recipe with a story
These more involved owners are no longer satisfied with “meat” as the first ingredient: they want to know which meat it is, where it comes from and what it provides. Hence the rise of single-protein recipes and novel proteins: species the animal has not eaten before, which is why they form the basis of elimination diets for dogs and cats with food allergies or sensitivities. Nielsen analysts had already identified quail, rabbit, venison and elk as rising novel proteins, because they help differentiate a product on the shelf and meet those needs.
What we see in our sales
At APM Traders we see it every day: demand for alternative meats is growing steadily. Horse meat is now one of our best-performing lines, and manufacturers are increasingly looking for rabbit, deer, wild boar, goat, duck, quail and buffalo, as well as fish as a second protein or a source of omega-3.
We are committed to the sector’s shift towards more sophisticated, higher-value products. These are raw materials with irregular availability, often tied to hunting seasons, a few specialised slaughterhouses or origins outside the EU. That is exactly why having a supplier who tracks them down, secures them and imports them is what allows a manufacturer to launch a new recipe and keep it on the market.
Consistency: the real value of a supplier
A pet food manufacturer sells the same recipe month after month. If the raw material changes, the product changes; if it runs out, the line stops. That is why, for our customers, consistency matters as much as price, and we measure it on four fronts:
- Consistent quality. The same cut, size, block format and analytical profile in every batch, with its technical data sheet and health documentation.
- Reliable lead times. Deliveries on the agreed date, with safety stock in our warehouses to absorb delays at origin.
- Stable prices. We plan purchases and diversify origins to cushion market swings and offer predictable prices, instead of passing every increase on to the customer.
- Sustained volume. Supplying 20 pallets one month is not enough: we have to secure the 20 for the next month, and the month after that.
Your market tracker
We make sure customers always have the volume they need to meet their demand. It makes no difference whether it is a product they launched thanks to a raw material we introduced to them, or an established recipe they were already making: our different supply lines allow us to cover it even if one origin fails.
Our goal is to be your global supplier: the partner who watches the market for you, spots where the raw material is at any given moment and brings it to you on the agreed terms and at the best available price. This way, a manufacturer can source from the whole market through a single contact and spend its time on what it does best: producing and selling.
What we supply
We work with the complete breakdown of each species, in Category 3 and human grade. The offal, cuts and chew pieces we supply for each one are detailed in our pet food raw materials catalogue.
Looking for a cut or species that is not on the list? Ask us: much of our work consists precisely of finding what is not in the catalogue.
How we work
Trading with operational excellence
We do not physically handle the product, except for the dices we produce in our cutting plant in Córdoba. Our advantage lies in digitalised, efficient processes, combined with almost 30 years of commercial, logistics, administrative and product experience. This allows us to respond quickly, compare origins in real time and manage complex operations with an agile team.
A plant network without geographical limits
We work with approved supplier plants in Spain, the rest of Europe and third countries authorised to export to the EU. As traders, we operate on those plants’ approvals, which lets us add new origins quickly when a customer needs a cut or species its usual market cannot offer.
Stock and logistics in Spain and Belgium
We have a network of third-party cold stores across Europe, mainly in Spain, and a strategic warehouse in Belgium, approved for both Category 3 and human-grade product. This network gives us virtually unlimited storage capacity and lets us bring the product closer to the customer: from Spain we serve the domestic market and southern Europe; from Belgium, with a local VAT number, Benelux, France, Germany and northern Europe. We coordinate refrigerated transport and all the documentation for each shipment.
Made-to-measure product
We adapt the raw material to the customer’s line, with minces of defined thickness and composition. In addition, thanks to our synergy with APM Packers, the group’s production plant in the Valle de los Pedroches, we can offer IQF dices of 2×2 cm and 3×3 cm, bone-in or boneless, from any beef, pork or lamb raw material.
Circular economy
Pet food plays a key role in making full use of the carcass. A gullet, a trachea, a lung or a carcass with no outlet at the butcher’s becomes nutritious, high-value food for dogs and cats. By finding an outlet for these by-products, we reduce waste, create value for slaughterhouses and close the loop of the meat industry. It is a way of working that is consistent with our mission: to add value ethically and efficiently.
Let’s talk about your next recipe
Whether you make extruded kibble, cans, BARF, air-dried, freeze-dried or dehydrated treats, tell us which species, cut and specification you need, and in what volume and how often. We will prepare a tailored offer.