The ban on the killing of male chicks in the egg production chain – so-called sexing (1) – will be triggered nationwide in France, as it has already been in Germany, starting in 2022. (2)
A momentous and shared sign of the transition to sustainable development of production and consumption (#SDG12), in the first manufacturing sector in the EU, by the two leading food-producing countries.
In Italy – the third largest country in the EU in food production, second in agricultural production and first in the latter’s value added – Coop Italia, on the other hand, is the only operator to have taken this route (3.4).
Egg production. EU 28 ranked second in the world, France leads the way
The 28-member Europe (UK included) ranks second in global egg production, accounting for 9.4 percent of the total. (5) After China-which produces about 1/3 of the planet’s eggs-and before the US (8%). In the EU, France dominates the ranking (15.7 billion eggs/year), followed by Germany and Spain.
Production in France continues to grow, +4.9% in 2020 and +2.5% in the first half of 2021. The decline in the Ho.Re.Ca.(Hotel, Restaurant, Catering) channel was in fact offset by a vertical increase in sales in large-scale retail (+11% in volume in 2020).
The avoidable extermination of male chicks
50 million male chicks are killed each year by gassing or chopping, in France alone, in egg ‘chicken factories’. Where animal welfare gives way to an ‘economistic’ rationale, in the crudest sense of making ends meet by saving the costs of raising the male chicks of laying hens, whose growth is slower and therefore more wasteful than that of broiler broilers.
The agriculture ministers of France and Germany have launched a bilateral cooperative partnership for applied research and innovation in poultry farming in 2020-2021. Together with poultry farmers’ professional organizations, research organizations, companies involved in the development of alternative technologies. As well as technical institutes and animal protection associations such as CIWF(Compassion in World Farming).
Prohibition of sexing. After Switzerland, there’s France and Germany
Switzerland is the first country in the world to have introduced a strict ban on sexting as early as 1.1.20. (4) In France and Germany, on 1.1.22 all operators of egg incubators must have installed, or at least ordered the purchase of, machinery to detect the sex of the chicks before the eggs are hatched. In any case, the instrumentation should be put into operation during 2022.
The spectrophotometer will enable operators to distinguish the sex of the chick (sexage) in ovo from day 13 after laying. By passing the egg over a beam of light, a camera realizes the color of the embryo’s first feathers, allowing the embryos of male chicks (white or yellow plumage) to be distinguished from female chicks (brown plumage) The eggs of the former can thus be discarded and destroyed before hatching.
Coop Switzerland and Coop Italy vs. Germany and France, bioethics vs. technology
Coop Switzerland and Coop Italy on closer inspection have approached the bioethics issue in poultry farming with a radically different approach. In fact, the two cooperative giants have reorganized their egg supply chains so that all laying hen chicks are hatched and raised, albeit with the different purposes of producing eggs (the females) and meat (the males).
Instead, Germany and France are focusing on spectrophotometry, which Agri Advanced Tecnhnologies (Erich Wesjohann Group) has applied to poultry farming to anticipate the sorting and discarding of male chicks at the stage before eggs hatch. The bioethics of the cooperative system is thus contrasted with a technology that does not exclude but only anticipates the suppression of the male chick. (6)
Supply chain program, the French example for the EU
The French government has earmarked a special fund (€10 million), in the National Relaunch Plan, to provide non-repayable financing for 40 percent of the cost of purchasing machinery that intercepts male chicks in ovo. It also envisions the redistribution of costs throughout the supply chain, through the visionary Loi EGalim 2 on unfair trade practices. (7) The Paris and Bonn ministers then presented the project to the Council of Ministers of Agriculture on 19.7.21, encouraging other member states and the Commission to extend the initiative to the EU level. (8)
CNPO, the interprofessional organization of the French egg industry, estimates € 15 million in investment in machinery and € 64 million/year, or 4 percent of the chiffre d’affaire, in additional operating costs. Thus, prices are expected to increase by a minimum of 0.5 cents/egg. Eggs will be marked with a heart-shaped mark, ‘sans tuer les poussins mâles‘ (without killing male chicks), on the packaging and shell.
French egg, a supply chain en marche
The egg interprofession in France is distinguished by, among other things, the five-year plan launched in 2017, the ‘Social Contract of the Future,’ articulated as follows:
– Out-of-cage breeding. Eggs from free-range hens now account for 64 percent of national production (December 2020 data),
– organic and Label Rouge. Operators have pledged to increase (+50% and +20% by 2022, respectively) the number of certified organic and Label Rouge laying hens, (10)
– Ensure responsible supply contracts to accompany the transition in large-scale retail (GDO) and HoReCa,
– Support research and development on animal welfare and sustainability,
– Enhance the national supply chain with the ‘oeuf de France‘ logo, to be applied on loose eggs but also on processed egg products (egg products).
Aviculture in Italy, the value added ‘without antibiotics‘
Italy‘s poultry industry, for its part, has a great opportunity to make antibiotic-free eggs and poultry meat. The best that can be done to improve animal welfare and protect consumers from the dangers associated with antibiotic resistance.
The Italian paradox is having the solution(Algatan) in house to eliminate antibiotics, reduce operating costs and increase yields, but stubbornly not making use of it. Widespread myopia?
Therefore, the added value that consumers know how to attribute to ‘antibiotic-free‘ eggs and poultry – as well as ‘without mincing male chicks‘ – remains an untapped potential, a demand that still lacks on-shelf supply. Until when?
Dario Dongo and Giulia Orsi
Notes
(1) Dario Dongo, Tommaso Di Paolo. Shredded chicks. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.3.18, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/pulcini-tritati
(2) Aymeric Renou. Julien Denormandie: “C’est la fin du broyage des poussins.” Le Parisien. 18.7.21 https://www.leparisien.fr/societe/julien-denormandie-cest-la-fin-du-broyage-des-poussins-18-07-2021-ZVAPDJ3RZBFQHIQ2H76XOQFB7A.php?ts=1626612367435
(3) Marta Strinati. Chopped chicks, the Coop says Enough. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 5.4.19, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/pulcini-tritati-la-coop-dice-basta
(4) Marta Strinati. The slaughter of male chicks, much talk and few facts. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 7/17/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/mercati/la-mattanza-dei-pulcini-maschi-tante-chiacchiere-e-pochi-fatti
(5) Dario Dongo, Alessandra Mei. Poultry and eggs, global demand on the rise. The sustainability challenge. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 3.2.20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/pollame-e-uova-domanda-globale-in-crescita-la-sfida-della-sostenibilità
(6) CIWF France in turn-already since 2020, in collaboration with Carrefour, has encouraged the use of the German-Dutch company RESPEGG’s in ovo sexage technology. Which makes it possible to intercept the egg with male from day 9, with 98% accuracy. The separated eggs are destined for the quality feed supply chain
(7) Dario Dongo, Giulia Orsi. Unfair trade practices, the lesson of Paris to Coldiretti and Confindustria. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.5.21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/idee/pratiche-commerciali-sleali-la-lezione-di-parigi-a-coldiretti-e-confindustria
(8) CNPO(Interprofession des Œufs). Alternative à l’élimination des poussins mâles, la filière française des œufs au rendez-vous. Communiqué de presse, 19.7.21 https://oeuf-info.fr/communique-de-presse-alternative-a-lelimination-des-poussins-males-la-filiere-francaise-des-oeufs-au-rendez-vous/
(9) CNPO. Plan de filière à 5 ans: garantir des Œufs français en phase avec la demande du marché.
https://oeuf-info.fr/infos-filiere/plan-de-filiere-a-5-ans-garantir-des-oeufs-francais-en-phase-avec-la-demande-du-marche/
(10) Label Rouge certification pertains to a farming system with higher indoor density (9 instead of 6 animals/sq m) and more outdoor green space (5 instead of 4 sq m per hen) than the organic system
(11) Dario Dongo, Andrea Adelmo Della Penna. Antibiotic-free poultry farming, the Italian way. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 12/14/20, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/progresso/avicoltura-senza-antibiotici-la-via-italiana
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Graduated in Law at the University of Bologna, now enrolled in the master of law of agri-food markets at the University of Turin. She is a practicing lawyer.
