A European commissioner says the European Union is pressing for the inclusion of animal welfare standards in any trade agreements with other parts of the world.
Andrea Gavinelli, the head of the Animal Welfare Unit of the European Commission, told an audience at the Pig and Poultry Event at Stoneleigh in May that there was no international agreement yet on animal welfare standards, but he said the EU wanted animal welfare included in any trade talks. He said the union had applied its own regulations on the use of laying cages and on sow stalls and those rules were transparent, but the EU had to "look at what is coming into the European Union."
"We do not have agreement internationally," he said, "we have the view of the European Union. We are sitting in trade negotiations wishing to have animal welfare included. It doesn't matter which country we are talking about, this is the mandate we have got and this is what we are doing," said the commissioner, who was outlining the Commission's position in response to a question from Robert Gooch, director of policy with the British Free Range Egg Producers' Association (BFREPA).
BFREPA chairman Roger Gent subsequently voiced his support for the imposition of welfare rules on international trade. "We have no argument with eggs or egg product coming from any part of the world, but if they are selling those eggs as free range then they must be free range," he said. "There are states in America where the eggs are sold as free range but it is illegal for the birds to be let outside." The United States is one country in which the EU is currently involved in talks on a trade agreement.
Roger Gent said it was vital that if eggs were to be traded around the world that trade had to be done fairly. "When welfare accounts for 15 per cent of our costs then it is impossible for us to compete in a global market unless we have a level playing field."
The issue of animal welfare and international trade was raised recently at the International Egg Commission (IEC) conference in Madrid. Whilst a number of European speakers said welfare rules should be part of trade agreements, Chad Gregory of United Egg Producers in the United States said he objected to the idea that an international welfare standard should be introduced. "It is one thing for Europe and the US to have a position to take birds out of cages for social or emotional reasons, but it's a different thing to tell people in South America or Africa to do the same thing when they are struggling to feed their people." Tim Lambert of Egg Farmers of Canada told the Ranger that including animal welfare as a condition in any international agreements would be "challenging." He said, "Not every country has the same perspective as Europe does. It becomes one more thing to be negotiated and my first reaction is that it would be challenging."
At the Pig and Poultry Event the president of the National Farmers' Union (NFU), Peter Kendall, also expressed doubts about the prospects of agreeing international standards. "As much as it would be nice to happen, we can't even do it in Europe," he said, referring to the introduction of the ban on conventional battery cages in January 2012. Numerous member states failed to meet the deadline for the ban and two are now being taken to the European Court for failing to enforce the rules. "If we have a country that is producing eggs in battery cages," he said, "we don't ban the trade from that country because other producers have made the investment for meeting it. We don't even do it in Europe. That puts it in the 'nice to do but too difficult to do' category," he said.
Andrea Gavinelli had earlier been challenged by visitors to the event about the failure of the European Commission to enforce the welfare regulations on battery cages and sow stalls. He said it was the responsibility of individual members states to enforce the rules, but the Commission was implementing "maximum monitoring." However, Peter Kendall said that farmers who had played by the rules had been let down by the European Union. "The farmers who invested shed loads of money feel really badly betrayed by the Commission when this is not policed," he said.
Another speaker at the Pig and Poultry Event, Stephen Lister of Crowshall Veterinary Services, said that farmers had to be paid better if society wanted to encourage high animal welfare standards. "Good animal welfare, in my opinion, would be best achieved if these committed producers are rewarded with a realistic return on their investment in caring for animals and satisfying the wants of consumers and the needs of the animals." He said that, despite tough economic conditions, consumers had to be realistic in their expectations and be willing to pay for the provenance of their food in terms of welfare and safety.
However, Ed Garner, communications director of market research company Kantar Worldpanel, warned that, although animal welfare did have some consumer appeal, consumers would only pay so much for animal welfare. Free range eggs now accounted for two thirds of the market and were no longer a niche, but the premium consumers paid for free range eggs was just pennies. The premium for organic eggs was much higher and sales were "in freefall", he said. "You can't expect to charge a very substantial premium for welfare. It is nice to have, consumers will appreciate it, it resonates with them and retailers can use it as a differentiator, but, as far as the consumer is concerned, if you jack up the premium and think it is a profit opportunity you will end up in a niche like organic eggs, not mainstream."
Free range was now mainstream, said Ed Garner. "The only dip recently was a supply issue, not a consumer purchasing issue," he said - something that was picked up by BFREPA chairman Roger Gent, who said that supplies of free range eggs were now pretty much in line with demand. Whilst the free range egg sector had got itself into oversupply in the past, he said it was colony egg that was now oversupplied and colony egg that had been reducing the price of eggs generally. He said that he could not see any justification for further price reductions for free range eggs from retailers and packers at the moment.
