Document type: news item from the Poultry World
Author: Tony Mcdougal
Preview: Animal welfare group Compassion in World Farming has hit back at claims by the Association of Poultry Producers and Poultry Trade in EU Countries (AVEC) around the additional costs linked to the European Chicken Commitment.
In a report produced by UK consultants ADAS, AVEC said fully transitioning to European Chicken Commitment standards would result in:
- An additional production cost of 37.5% per kg of meat.
- A 35.4% increase in water consumption, equating to an additional 12.44 million cubic metres annually.
- A 35.5% increase in feed consumption, amounting to an additional 7.3 million tonnes.
- A 24.4% rise in greenhouse gas emissions per kg of meat produced.
- A reduction of 44% in the total meat produced compared to standard production methods at present in existing EU growing space (>30kg/m²).
- The necessity to construct 9,692 new poultry houses, with an estimated cost of €8.24 billion, to maintain current production levels.
Informed decision-making
AVEC's president, Gert-Jan Oplaat, emphasised the importance of consumer choice and informed decision-making: "While the European Chicken Commitment aims to improve animal welfare, it is crucial to recognise that these improvements come with significant economic and environmental implications. Knowing that EU poultry consumption is predicted to grow in the EU in the next 10 years, consumers should have the choice to select higher welfare products if they wish, but it's crucial that standard, affordable options remain available."
Commercially and environmentally viable
But Compassion said the reported had attempted to model the economic and environmental costs of European Chicken Commitment production but had fallen short in accounting for the benefits associated with higher welfare production - including lower mortality, reduced antibiotic use and better meat quality, which could significantly offset some of these economic and environmental impacts.[...]Cost-reduction strategies or the broader positive impacts [...]By excluding the breeding and processing phases, the report overlooked areas where European Chicken Commitment systems can outperform conventional systems, such as a better productivity of the parent stock, lower rejection rates in slaughterhouses and fewer carcass downgrades due to meat quality issues, leading to a reduction in food waste. In addition, European Chicken Commitment flocks typically report much lower mortality rates (while the AVEC report uses a mortality rate 0.5% lower for European Chicken Commitment flocks based on "industry views", scientific literature reports a greater difference of up to 9% lower).
The increase in production costs must be absorbed across the entire food chain, not just by producers or consumers, while transition periods are also crucial when modelling the economic impact of a move to European Chicken Commitment production - two key aspects which were unfortunately left out of the AVEC report.
