More animal welfare on the shelf

Chapeau to your commitment. The tons of imported meat and poultry in the M stores come from numerous countries. Is it even possible to control animal welfare?

Daniel Häfliger, Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund (MGB), Head of Category Management Meat, Poultry, Fish, Charcuterie: In principle, we are interested in selling as much as possible from Swiss production. With pork, for example, it's almost one hundred percent. But for fine cuts such as beef entrecôte or fillet, demand is significantly higher than supply. That's why we have to rely on imports. With our animal welfare project as part of "Generation M", we also want to achieve the high Swiss animal standards on imported animal products in meat, egg and milk production.

We have a partnership with our suppliers abroad with whom we are implementing the project. Nevertheless, it will be a great challenge for us to raise the different standards of the individual suppliers to the Swiss animal welfare level.

Bernhard Kammer, MGB Head of Development Sustainability Procurement Fresh/Food: Transparency along the entire value chain is very important. Our suppliers may still have upstream stages, i.e. right down to the individual fattening and farming operation. We work with an audit concept and transparency is ensured thanks to strict monitoring by external and independent experts.

Ultimately, the consumer wants to know that what is written on the packaging is what is inside.

Chamber: The external certification company ProCert Safety AG ensures this. In addition, the Swiss Animal Protection STS advises us on conversions on site abroad. The STS accompanies and assesses our projects, whether for chicken, pigs, rabbits or other animal species. However, the organisation has no supervisory function. This is the sole responsibility of experts under the leadership of the aforementioned certification company. Every single farm and fattening farm from which we purchase animal products is scrutinised. The changeover to the local animal standard is taking place step by step and should be implemented by 2020 at the latest.

You work with a so-called risk analysis for each animal species. Where is the primary need for action?

Chamber: In an initial phase, we carried out a risk analysis together with the Swiss Animal Protection STS. This is updated on an ongoing basis. The focus is on five animal welfare criteria: animal husbandry, animal health, feeding, transport and slaughter method. Depending on the type of animal, one or the other parameter is more important. In this regard, we work closely with the Swiss Animal Protection STS.

Häfliger: The risk analysis has shown us that the greatest need for action lies with turkeys and rabbits, where we import 75 and 80 percent respectively. We were already able to improve the situation for these two animal species last year. In Hungary we have converted or newly built around 30 turkey barns to Swiss specifications. The animals now have more space, daylight in the barn and access to a kind of winter garden, to name just three aspects.

Next we need to tackle the chicken sector and then the pig fattening sector. In the case of imported eggs, the situation of laying hens must be adapted.

Will all imported animal products on the M shelves one day come with a certificate or label on the packaging?

Chamber: A definitive version of the declaration is not yet available. Today, our turkey meat is labelled "Origin Hungary, produced according to Swiss animal welfare regulations". There is not much room on the packaging for a trilingual declaration. We are currently evaluating what message we want to communicate. It is important that the consumer immediately recognises this added value.

Why is the name of the fattening farm missing?

Häfliger: Even with Swiss-produced meat, the producer is not always indicated on the packaging. This only applies to a certain segment. When it comes to imported meat, the customer particularly wants to know which standard is met. Anyone wishing to obtain additional information can find the relevant details on our website.

In the case of poultry, it would perhaps still be possible to prove the origin of the individual farm, as large quantities are slaughtered by the same fattening farm. For other animal species, however, this would not be possible with reasonable effort.

Is the project already having a signal effect?

Häfliger: Through the turkey project in Hungary, we have stimulated a discussion and we know that various retailers are interested in the topic and that they are also looking for solutions for imported products. In the medium term, what we have initiated will lead to large quantities of imported products that meet the Swiss animal welfare standard being on the market.

How does this affect consumer prices? How much more expensive does this make the cheap line, for example?

Häfliger: Animal welfare also affects the "M-Budget" range, as our corresponding turkey products in the stores already show today. The implementation has not made the products more expensive. I must add, however, that we as a company are financing the projects; this is start-up financing. As a commercial company, however, we have to add this added value to the purchase price at a later date.

Why is there no attempt to increase domestic production?

Häfliger: As I said, we try to bring a large proportion of products from Switzerland onto the shelves. In theory, we could have more fine meat such as fillet produced here, but then we would have to export the less noble cuts because consumers don't buy them here. The other way round is easier.

Chamber: Although production of chicken and turkey meat in Switzerland is steadily increasing, the desired quantities can never be covered. In addition, the framework conditions, such as spatial planning aspects, etc., impose some limits on larger fattening farms in this country. Irrespective of this, it would not necessarily make sense, for example, if more feed had to be imported for this purpose.

Less food waste in meat would mean fewer slaughters - which would be good for animal welfare.

Häfliger: Meat, along the entire value chain, is a matter of trust. In the store, the freshness date sets limits for us. When the sell-by date expires, we offer the goods at a reduced price. If the products still remain in the racks, we offer them to the employees on the expiry date before "to be consumed by" at greatly reduced prices once again. We have to dispose of anything that does not sell by then. Whereby "dispose of" means that we feed the goods to a biogas plant, for example. In this way, we are constantly trying to optimise the area of food waste.