January 3, 2012

 

EU-wide ban on poultry cages unfair to local farmers

 

 

Foreign attitudes to a new EU law aimed at improving conditions for caged hens will be "clearly unfair" on the county's poultry farmers, said the National Farmers' Union in Derbyshire.

 

From Sunday, the EU says that no hen should be housed in an "inhumane" cage - one with 550sq cm per bird.

 

Instead, under the new Welfare of Laying Hens Directive, hens will have to be kept in an "enriched colony cage" with nesting and perching space and a scratching area.

 

But several European countries, including France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Slovakia, are all set to flout the ban.

 

Simon Fisher, senior food and farming adviser for the NFU in the East Midlands, said this was unfair as it would put UK caged poultry farmers at a "commercial disadvantage".

 

There are at least two caged hen farmers in Derbyshire and it is understood that one would have to send his hens to the slaughterhouse.

 

Fisher said, "We have not got tougher action from the government to protect UK egg producers from illegal eggs, so we now need real enforcement of the Directive across the EU.

 

"We also need retailers and food manufacturers to not buy eggs and egg products produced in conventional cages elsewhere in Europe."

 

He added that foreign poultry farmers could import eggs into Britain at lower prices if they decide to flout the ban and the costs that come with it.

 

This may mean that all of Derbyshire's poultry farmers - not just those which keep caged hens - could suffer from distortion of market prices. NFU records show that, in 2010, there were 160,000 chickens for egg-laying kept in Derbyshire, and 787,000 for meat. The union could not say how many poultry farms there are in the county.

 

Jane Howorth, founder of national charity the British Hen Welfare Trust, said one billion eggs were still imported to the UK every year.

 

She said, "Therein lies the worry - that not only will consumers be unwittingly eating illegal eggs produced to lower welfare standards but we will also be putting British egg farmers at a serious commercial disadvantage, as they struggle to compete with overseas markets that continue to flout the rules."

 

But she added that the improvements brought about by enriched cages were to be welcomed.

 

She said, "Unlike the barren cage, the enriched cage does allow the birds to stretch their wings, roost, scratch and lay eggs in a nest box, meeting their basic, natural behavioural needs."