Food giant Heinz Wattie's is boosting its production of petfood in New Zealand -- to address a shortage of petfood around the world

It's investing more than 20-million-dollars into a Hastings factory to keep producing petfood here.

Managing director Neil Heffer says freight issues have led to a global petfood shortage, and an increase in pet ownership is pushing up demand.

Heffer says Wattie's has already boosted pet food production, but the new facilities will allow it to do produce even more.