China's national standards for free-range chickens and free-range eggs are about to be issued
“Free-range chickens”, “free-range eggs”, “ecological chickens” and the like have long been favored by consumers in recent years for their natural, original ecology, high nutritional value and traditional taste. However, because there are no national standards, nor provincial-level standards, for the rearing of ecological free-range chickens and their product “free-range eggs”, the entire free-range chicken rearing and product market is a jumble of good and bad, with uneven prices, making it hard for consumers to tell the genuine from the fake.
Recently, the author learned from the Second Hubei Provincial Local Chicken Industry Development Conference that, in order to resolve the dilemma of consumers finding it hard to buy and farmers finding it hard to sell genuine ecological free-range chickens and free-range eggs, four institutions - China Agricultural University, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Hubei Provincial Poultry Association and the Hubei Provincial Qingshan Lushui Ecological Free-Range Chicken Professional Cooperative Union - are drafting the "Hubei Province Standards for the Rearing of Ecological Free-Range Chickens and Their Products", which is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Cai Chuanpeng, head of the Hubei Provincial Animal Husbandry Technology Extension Station, told the author that after the standards are approved, they will first be promoted on a trial basis among breeding enterprises in Hubei Province. By then, the rearing environment for ecological free-range chickens, feed composition, and the weight, size and color of “free-range eggs” will all have unified standards; eggs will be marked with QR codes, and the entire rearing and sales process will be traceable.
According to the author's investigation, “free-range egg” labeling on the Chinese market is unclear and prices are chaotic. On the market, apart from the words “free-range eggs” and descriptions such as green and pollution-free farming, ordinary packaged “free-range egg” boxes carry no other text indicating “free-range egg” standards. But in the egg sections of some large supermarkets, all kinds of “free-range eggs” have become the mainstream on the shelves, with numerous brands and varying prices. The author also noticed that on the packaging of these “free-range eggs”, most of the information marked is about place of origin, point of sale, no hormones and no drug residues, epidemic prevention and safety inspection as required, and nutritional value; information explaining professional standards for “free-range eggs” is rarely seen. “There are no standards at all for the rearing of ecological free-range chickens and their products, and most ‘free-range eggs’ only carry labels such as green and pollution-free.” At the Second Local Chicken Industry Development Conference, Wang Zhongqiang, secretary-general of the Hubei Provincial Qingshan Lushui Ecological Free-Range Chicken Professional Cooperative Union, said that because there are neither local standards nor national standards for the rearing of ecological free-range chickens and their products, almost every producer can “produce free-range eggs”. Wang Zhongqiang said that the main reason why ecological “free-range eggs” on the current market vary greatly in price and are hard to tell apart as genuine or fake is the lack of authoritative rearing standards for ecological free-range chickens; when the products that come to market have no labeling, the market will be relatively chaotic. “Some city residents have to go to the countryside in person to buy pure ‘free-range eggs’, but the quantity is limited.” Wang Zhongqiang said.
Farmers find it hard to sell and consumers find it hard to buy, while market demand continues to grow. “It is precisely to resolve this contradiction in the ecological ‘free-range egg’ market that we set up the ecological free-range chicken professional cooperative union, with more than 30 large-scale ecological free-range chicken breeding cooperatives across the province, including Jingmen, Yichang and Shiyan, joining forces to venture into the market.” Cai Chuanpeng said that this union is also the country's first ecological free-range chicken union. As secretary-general of the union, Wang Zhongqiang has reached a consensus with the heads of member units to implement unified standardized production and build a unified Hubei Province brand for a series of ecological free-range chicken products. Wang Zhongqiang told the author that before the standards are released, all 6,113 farming households in the union will rear their chickens entirely according to the standards being drafted. “Hubei ecological ‘free-range eggs’ produced and marketed according to the standards will be given a unified brand mark, and through QR code traceability technology, consumers will be able to identify pure ecological ‘free-range eggs’ and buy with greater confidence.” Wang Zhongqiang said.