| SUBSCRIBE MARKETS WEATHER LINKS HOME |
|
New restriction on German battery units threatens the country's self-sufficiency in eggsNew EU regulations on cages and a severe new limit on the number of birds per production farm are sending shock waves through the German poultry industryby NORMAN DUNNEgg production in Europe is claiming more of the political limelight than any other farming sector. It's been at centre stage since at least the beginning of the 1990s, when animal welfare groups started pressing harder for a ban on battery cage production.We've seen floor space per bird in such systems increased from 440 square centimetres in 2003 to the present minimum of 550. "Welfare cages" are also being introduced with a minimum floor space per bird of 750 square centimetres, along with perches, dust-bath and pecking areas and nesting boxes. Under European Union legislation, these are to take over from all other cages from the end of 2011. But Switzerland has already banned all cages, including welfare ones, and Sweden has been preparing to change over completely to welfare cages much earlier than the EU deadline. Meanwhile, the green-dominated Ministry of Agriculture in Germany has banned all conventional battery cages as from December 2006 and is giving farmers until the end of 2011 to get rid of welfare cages, too. The country is forging ahead with these changes despite unarguable scientific work showing that hens in other production systems, especially free range, are more at risk from disease and pecking injuries, that mortality is higher and the salmonella risk to consumers greater. The news from Switzerland, where battery cage systems for layers were banned in the 1990s, is that the production cost of free range eggs is at least double that of battery systems. Swiss research has put average mortality at three times the old average death rate in cage systems. Following Switzerland, Germany wants to beat other EU members in establishing an almost cage-free egg production sector -- "almost" because even this country can't get completely away from the cage concept. A special "large aviary cage" is being worked on at the moment and it appears that this will be launched as a kind of poultry Hilton for layers in the near future. From now on in Germany, only free-range systems with a total of 10 square metres of outdoor run per bird and indoor on-the-floor aviary concepts are allowed to be built. The luxury cage is still being worked on, but the latest news is that this will offer a minimum floor space of 1,100 square centimetres per bird, 48 per cent more than the EU definition of a welfare cage. No more than 36 birds will be allowed per cage in a design concept aimed at combining the health and hygiene aspects of conventional cages and the sort of freedom only available in outdoor free-range systems. Other aspects of the new "Hilton" cage include a minimum height of 1.05 metres and floor measurements of 2 x 1.25 metres, with an optional upper floor of 2 x 0.75 metres. Each bird is to have nesting box space of at least 95 square centimetres and a litter-strewn "scratching area" of 150 square centimetres or more. Perch space in the proposed cages must be at least 15 centimetres per bird and every bird is to have at least 10 centimetres room at the feed trough. No one has put a price on this accommodation as yet, which is perhaps just as well for the already beleaguered German poultry farmers who have also just heard that there's to be a future legal limit to the number of birds per egg production farm of 6000! To imagine the shock waves this latest bombshell has caused, let's just take a look at the statistics for this year. These indicate that 22 per cent of battery units in Germany already house over 30,000 birds and eight per cent have over 100,000. One thing is now clear: a whole lot of rebuilding is going to have to take place quite soon on German poultry farms. Currently, the country still has 80 per cent of its national layer flock, or 30.7 million birds, in conventional battery cage systems. According to Germany's Institute for Intensive Livestock Production (ISPA), the battery ban would bring the country's self-sufficiency in egg production crashing from its present 74 per cent to just 35 per cent. Annual egg imports would then increase from the present four to five billion eggs to 10 or 11 billion by 2012.
Of course, this is great news for other egg-producing countries not under the same pressure to change layer systems. Should all the proposed changes go ahead, the increased demand for imported eggs in Germany would represent two-thirds of the global egg trade.BF Norman Dunn writes about European agriculture from Germany.
|