Document type: news item from CIWF France
Author: CIWF France
Preview: CIWF has today (April 26) published the new European ChickenTrack report. The purpose of this tool is to track the progress of companies who have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), particularly those in France, who are major players in the project.
Dedicated monitoring tool for the "Better Chicken Commitment"
In Europe, more than 350 companies have to date signed up to the BCC, including close to 120 in France. Broiler production in Europe topped 6.4 billion animals in 2020, of which only 8% are raised in systems that guarantee a better level of animal welfare.
ChickenTrack aims to encourage companies committed to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) to report clearly and transparently on the progress they are making within their supply chain. ChickenTrack has been developed on the same principle as the EggTracktool, which tracks the progress of companies in ensuring that their eggs are produced outside the cage. The two tools have been designed by CIWF to make sure that companies are meeting their commitments, to encourage transparency, to showcase committed producers, and to help companies in making the transition.
Real progress in France and Europe
This year, ChickenTrack 2022 examined the progress made on 73 commitments from 60 companies and reveals that 42% of the commitments assessed have been publicly reported, but that more than half (58%) currently have no reporting associated with them.
Twenty-one French companies figured in the ChickenTrack project this year, across all food sectors. At European level, French companies are the most assiduous in reporting publicly on their progress (11 out of 21 companies, or 43%), and the transparency efforts of French retailers are noteworthy, with 6 retailers having published reports.
French supermarkets are now European leaders in their commitment to the welfare of broiler chickens. Indeed, almost all are now committed to the BCC for 100% of fresh and frozen chicken and for processed products containing more than 50% chicken sold under their own brands. The transition should be completed by 2026.
This is also the sector where transition is most advanced: Auchan and Groupe Casino report that they have respectively reached 93% and 100% compliance with the "slower-growing strains" criterion for all own-brand fresh chicken, while Carrefour France confirms that more than 50% of its own-brand fresh chicken now meets all BCC farming criteria.
These commitments are accompanied by a more than 70% membership among French supermarkets (Auchan, Groupe Casino, Carrefour, Système U, Les Mousquetaires, Lidl) of the Animal Welfare Label for the chicken industry, whose Level C is based on the BCC farming criteria. The Animal Welfare Label is a clear and transparent way of communicating with consumers and involving them in transition.
Other French food sectors have also made a major commitment to the BCC. ChickenTrack 2022 highlights reports published by KFC France in the food service industry and Danone and Sodebo in the processing industry, but there is still much to be done in these sectors.
Nor is the upstream sector left trailing in this transition, with commitments from key players such as Galliance and LDC in France, but also the 2 Sisters Food Group, Plukon and Fileni (Italy), to the production of increasing volumes of chicken that meet the BCC criteria [...].
Read the full report
Key figures 2022
- ChickenTrack 2022 looked at progress on 73 commitments from 60 companies (some companies made multiple commitments in different European markets), selected according to size and impact on the European market.
- 20 have made Europe-wide commitments
- 17 have made partial commitments in Europe (i.e. in several countries)
- 23 are involved in national actions and commitments only.
- For these 73 commitments :
- Reports were published for 42% of the assessed commitments, i.e. 31 commitments
- 27 (37%) reported their progress for each criterion
- 4 (5%) reported on their progress against the BCC criteria as a whole
- 12 commitments were reported as having achieved 100% compliance for at least one BCC criterion
- The Norwegian producer Norsk Kylling is the only company whose products are 100% compliant with the BCC criteria.
- More than half of commitments (58% or 42 companies) are not currently associated with any reporting.
- ChickenTrack checks published progress information for each of the 6 BCC criteria, allowing progress in individual topic areas to be differentiated, noting the following differences:
- Stock densities (the criterion for which the greatest number of reports have been published), an average progress of 33% for French companies
- Changing strains, an average progress of 41% for the French, compared with a 21% European average
- Natural light, average progress of 37% for French companies
- Enrichissement du milieu, un progrès moyen de 41 % pour les entreprises françaises
- Greater respect in slaughtering, an average progress of just 33% in France, compared with a European average of 54%
