Should South African farms follow Europe and ban battery hen farming?

With an EU-wide ban on the sale of battery hen eggs coming into force on 1 January, a case could be made for South African farms to follow suit.

The UK government has already gained agreement from supermarkets not to use illegal eggs. However, ministers haven’t banned imports of illegally produced eggs from Europe, emphasising that a unilateral ban was "not a realistic option".

The EU law states that chickens must not be kept in cages with less that 45cm of headroom and 750 square cm floor space per hen. Pecking and scratching must also be allowed.

Applying these regulations to South African chicken farms is difficult as the rules on free-range hens are much looser. For example, farmers are advised to keep no more than five chickens per square metre, but there aren’t any specific cage-size rules per hen. 

The [South African] Poultry Association also provides guidelines on how to keep chickens, but there are no standardised terms like those soon to be enforced in Europe. 

Nevertheless, with consumers worldwide becoming more aware of ethical standards, owners of South African farms for sale could consider making farms more attractive to buyers by converting to a hen-friendly system. 

Major UK supermarkets have promised to manufacture their own-label products with free-range eggs, and there is no reason why South African supermarkets couldn’t follow suit

But the cost of conversion is not cheap. UK producers have spent an estimated £400m replacing cages with chicken-friendly systems.

Conversion can also be time-consuming. The EU ban on battery hens was announced back in 1999, giving the 27 member states 12 years to comply. However, 13 states have indicated that they will either be unable to comply (including Belgium, Poland and Portugal) or do not want to comply (such as Italy, Greece and Hungary) by the January deadline. 

The UK government wants producers to be “protected from being undercut by cheap eggs from illegal systems." In South Africa the focus is more on consumer rights than those of chickens, with those concerned about hen welfare advised to buy directly from the farm. Unlike in the EU, South African farmers must be prepared to answer potentially difficult questions in this area.

There is also the problem of discerning which eggs are battery farmed and which are free range. The UK government are combating this with ultraviolet lights that pick up wire marks from cages on illegal egg shells. Time will tell if this proves successful.

Eggs, of course, are a constituent part of many baking and confectionery products, and discerning their origin is much harder in mixed products. Even the new EU law continues to allow battery eggs be used in these products. 

Mark Williams, Chief Executive of The British Egg Industry Council echoes the opinion of many, by contending that the UK government should introduce a complete ban on all illegal egg products in the UK. So the future of farming, at least in Europe, seems to be moving in a more ethical direction.

As it stands, South African farmers can still export battery egg products to EU nations, as the European Commission has refused to ban both incoming and outgoing battery exports. How long this continues for remains to be seen...