Carrefour Leads Taiwan's First Move with Animal Protection Groups to Fully Provide Cage-Free Eggs
In 2012, the European Union banned farmers within its territory from raising laying hens in "battery cages," sparking a global "egg revolution" to abolish battery cage farming. However, in Taiwan, 93% of eggs still come from battery cage farming. Today (the 15th), major chain retailer Carrefour, together with the Taiwan Society for the Protection of Animals (SPCA Taiwan) and egg farmers, held a press conference to announce that they will fully provide 100% cage-free eggs in the future, balancing consumer health and animal welfare. This is the first time a major retail operator in Taiwan has clearly declared that it will fully adopt a friendly egg production system.
Carrefour stated that in order to drive industry change, it welcomes egg farmers who have already transitioned or are about to transition to "cage-free" production systems to discuss production and sales cooperation with Carrefour's merchandising department, jointly promoting sustainable and friendly animal husbandry.
News glossary: The "battery cage" method of raising laying hens involves confining 2-4 hens in a cage about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, where they spend their entire lives inside the cage. The narrow space causes them to trample each other and prevents them from spreading their wings to groom their feathers. It has been criticized for disregarding animal welfare and being detrimental to health and environmental sustainability.
Farmers: Carrefour is willing to buy, and the whole family is willing to transition all egg production
Carrefour announced it will fully shift to purchasing friendly eggs. He Zongyu of Quanxin Livestock Farm stated that Changhua is the largest base for laying hen farming in Taiwan, and his family and friends alone raise over a hundred thousand laying hens, but currently none dare to rashly transition. Only if retailers are willing to support them will operators dare to invest in production.
Lin Zhijie, a second-generation laying hen farmer at Maolin Ranch who returned from Australia, stated that his family started with traditional farming. He deeply feels that "if you don't care about the chickens' lives and quality of life, it's impossible to give consumers good eggs." He has seen the progress of abolishing battery cage farming abroad move very rapidly, but the Taiwan government has never had active policy support. Lin stated, "Farmers have to work very hard to open up sales channels themselves. Carrefour Group's willingness to formulate policies from the retailer side to help is truly very important to farmers. Farmers who treat animals well truly need consumer support to enable industry change."
SPCA: Providing voluntary assistance to enterprises in auditing and farm visits to facilitate the transition of the laying hen industry
Chen Yumin, deputy chief executive of the Taiwan Society for the Protection of Animals (abbreviated as "SPCA"), who facilitated Carrefour's friendly laying hen procurement, stated that SPCA has long focused on animal welfare and assisted egg farmers in transitioning. This time, they assisted Carrefour in matching egg farmers, assessing whether farms comply with friendly animal guidelines, finding suitable washing and grading facilities, and conducting unscheduled audits to ensure production and supply consistency, with no "bad egg" phenomena. Chen Yumin stated that SPCA provides assistance to enterprises free of charge to ensure independent operation of assessments.
Chen Yumin stated that many egg farmers in Taiwan are preparing to transition, and many large companies are also investing in the friendly farming trend. Some feed suppliers will even invest in large-scale free-range and floor-raised systems, showing that animal welfare food will gradually become mainstream.
International organizations: Cage-free eggs will be the future trend
Aaron Ross, vice president of "Policy and Strategy" of the "Open Wings Alliance (OWA)" international coalition composed of 53 animal protection organizations from 50 countries worldwide, stated at the press conference: Carrefour Taiwan is the first hypermarket in Taiwan to commit to purchasing friendly eggs, which is very commendable and will create a chain reaction in Asia.
He pointed out that over 500 large food companies and retailers worldwide have already set policy timelines for fully purchasing and selling "cage-free" eggs. "Cage-free farming" will be the future trend, including countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland that have announced they will fully ban "cage farming." He reminded that all catering groups in Taiwan should catch up with the global pace as soon as possible.
After 1.24 million laying hens were affected, how to prevent the next unexploded bomb? | How can traditional cage-raised chicken houses face the challenges?
Free chickens, healthy eggs: Zhang Jianfeng tears down battery cages, raises chickens with zero medication