(NAFB) – A recent study found that corn and corn gluten meal are the top two most used plant-based ingredients in pet food products.

Corn is the dominant plant-based carbohydrate at 1.2 million tons, and corn gluten meal is the dominant plant-based protein ingredient at 476,000 tons used annually. Thanks to pet food, the corn industry moved 1.9 million tons of product, valued at a total of $438 million. Farmers and farm-product processors sell $6.9 billion worth of products to pet food manufacturers every year that are used as ingredients.

The Institute for Feed Education and Research, the Pet Food Institute, and the North American Renderers Association compiled the data. Sales made by farmers and processors of farm products to pet food manufacturers stimulates further upstream economic activity, leading to the purchase of $5.3 billion of materials and services from farm suppliers, to produce products that are used as pet food ingredients, according to the report.