Ban on Battery Cages &
Pigs Directive
Peter Stevenson
Compassion in World Farming
EU ban on conventional battery cages &
on sale of battery eggs comes into force
1st January 2012
We are opposed to any postponement of
the ban on battery cages
Intra-Community Trade
• Producers who are compliant by 1.1.2012 must
be protected from unfair competition from
producers who continue to unlawfully use
battery cages
• From 1.1.2012 sale of battery eggs is prohibited
under EU Egg Marketing Regulation
• Governments entitled not to permit sale of
battery eggs unlawfully produced in other
Member States
We oppose weakening of sales ban
• Opposed to legalising of sale of battery
eggs in MS of production
• Would remove incentive for farmers to
move away from battery cages
• Opposed to code ‘4’ for battery eggs –
would legalise sale of battery eggs
Volume of intra-Community trade in eggs & egg
products:
Data based on 2010 study produced for EP ComAgri
• Only 11.5% of EU egg production (shell eggs & egg products)
is traded between the Member States (MS)
• 85.4% is used in MS of production.
• Remaining 3.1% is exported to third countries
• Proportion of egg production exported to other MS
Member State
% exported to other MS
Spain
2.2%
Italy
3.0%
Poland
3.9%
France
9.2%
Food businesses supporting the
move away from cages
•
•
•
All Dutch & Austrian & most
Belgian supermarkets have
stopped selling battery eggs. All
big German supermarket chains
now cage-free.
Many foodservice operators no
longer use battery eggs - vast
majority of whole eggs used in EU
by McDonald’s, Europe’s leading
foodservice operator, are free
range.
Food manufacturers moving
away from cage eggs. Unilever,
Europe’s second largest food
manufacturer, aims to be cagefree in all mayonnaises &
dressings in a range of MS by
2012
Position of UK retailers re battery cage ban
Company
Shell eggs
Egg ingredients
Sainsbury’s
Cage-free
Cage-free by 2012 on
own label products
Marks & Spencer
Free range
Free range on own label
products
Waitrose
Free range
Free range on own label
products
Co-op
Free range
Free range on 70% of
own label products
Morrisons
Free range on own label
Not cage-free
Tesco
Is replacing battery eggs
with enriched cage eggs
ASDA
Plans to replace battery
eggs with enriched cage
eggs
Member State
Food business activity
UK
• Supermarkets: see table
• Many foodservice operators cage-free, e.g. Pret à Manger,
McDonald’s, Starbucks, Subway, JD Wetherspoon & Ikea.
France
• Sales of cage-free eggs represent 31% of total retail sales
in volume & 45% in value
• Lustucru, a leading pasta brand, has launched new range
of ‘free-range’ pasta
Italy
• Leading retailer, Coop Italia, cage-free on all shell eggs &
working on going cage-free on egg product
• Big retailer, Esselunga, cage-free on its own branded shell
eggs.
• 4 pasta producers & 1 ice-cream maker received Good
Egg Awards
Spain
• Calvé uses only free range eggs for its mayonnaise.
• Autogrill & Ikea are cage-free.
• Autogrill has big communication campaign informing its
customers about its use of free-range eggs.
Germany
• All big supermarket chains are cage-free.
• Most pasta producers, 30 producers of bakery products &
20 foodservice companies cage-free or are in process of
becoming so
Need for improved
enforcement of Pigs Directive
Widespread breaches of Pigs Directive’s
requirement to provide enrichment materials &
its prohibition on routine tail docking
• 2008-09 CIWF investigation
in UK, Germany, Spain, NL,
Demark & Hungary – visited
74 farms
• Vast majority in breach of
Directive as had no
enrichment materials &
almost all pigs were taildocked
• Investigation in France - no
enrichment materials &
routine tail-docking
FVO
reports
FVO reports over last 15
months concerning 13 MS
show
widespread failure by pig
industry to comply with
requirement to provide
enrichment materials &
prohibition on routine tail
docking
equally pervasive failure
by MS to enforce this
legislation
Percentage of undocked pigs in
surveyed countries: EFSA report 2007
Copyright
EFSA
EFSA: Over 90% of
pigs in EU are taildocked
Directive requires provision of
enrichment materials
• “must have permanent access to a sufficient quantity of
material to enable proper investigation and
manipulation activities”
• Directive requires provision of materials “such as
straw, hay, wood, sawdust, mushroom compost,
peat”
• Legally, if use a material other than one of those
specified, it must be as effective in enabling
“proper investigation and manipulation activities”
Which materials provide effective
enrichment?
• EFSA reviews of scientific
research
– enrichment materials
should be complex,
changeable &
destructible
– chains, tyres, toys,
balls, plastic objects &
chewing sticks are not
effective enrichment
materials
Directive prohibits
routine tail docking
• “inadequate environmental
conditions or management
systems must be changed”
before docking is carried out
• EFSA: principal causes of tail
biting include absence of straw
& barren environment
• Farmer must provide effective
enrichment materials before
s/he legally entitled to tail dock