Retailers are embracing 30kg, but not the BCC. Dr Tracey Jones of Compassion in World Farming shares her hopes and fears for the birds, and the industry
Dr Tracey Jones is global director of food business at Compassion in World Farming.
She spent 17 years as a research scientist before joining the NGO, specialising in animal behaviour and welfare, carrying out research projects typically funded by Defra on topics such as how lower stocking density affects welfare.
Since joining CIWF 14 years ago she has been an advocate of the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC).
Last month, Tesco followed every other major retailer except Asda and Iceland in committing to reduce chicken stocking densities to 30 kg per square metre, down from the 38 kg required by Red Tractor.
Others, such as Waitrose and M&S, have gone further and signed up to the full BCC, which as well as lower stocking density, requires producers to also use slower growing breeds, plus several other measures including more enrichment.
Jones spoke to Poultry Business about the organisation’s long campaign to achieve lower stocking densities for broilers, and also her disappointment more retailers haven’t gone the whole hog and signed up to the BCC.
“It falls short of the full complement of what is needed to really deliver high welfare for chickens, and that is you know incorporating not only space but the natural light, the breed change, and the slaughter technique as well.”
The power of the retailers is huge, she says. “When one of the large ones decides to do this, the others eventually ripple and follow that through and it has an impact across a large percentage of the UK production base.
“It shows the potential of what the retailers could do if they decided to actually fully commit to higher welfare and make the breed change as well,” says Jones. “It is in their gift.”
Falling short
Jones thinks it is now unlikely more large retailers will sign up to BCC any time soon. Worse, she fears they will drop their existing BCC compliant ranges – Room to Roam in Tesco and Space to Roam in Morrisons – as part of the shift to 30kg overall.
CIWF was hoping, she says, “that they would grow those ranges.” Dropping them could end up, says Jones, “having a really negative effect on the BCC”.
She makes the point that those ranges have an impact on the foodservice companies being able to fulfil BCC commitments, due to carcase balance in the processing plant.
Any reduction in demand might have a further knock on effect in the market, she says. Several large foodservice companies were early signatories of the BCC, including KFC, Burger King and Starbucks. They could end up having to look elsewhere for BCC compliant products. “Maybe into Poland,” speculates Jones.
Long road
It is clear that for Jones, farm animal welfare is her top priority. She believes the science is clear that slower growing breeds and lower stocking density are key components of this.
This is a contested topic within the poultry industry, with groups such as the NFU maintaining their long held position that stockmanship, not breed or stocking density, is the most important factor in good welfare.
But Jones says that while stockmanship is of course a crucial component, faster growing breeds and higher stocking densities put a ceiling on how good welfare can be, and all things being equal, birds are better off with more space and grown slower.
Another point of contention around the BCC is the increased environmental and financial costs.
A recent report commissioned by The Association of Poultry Processors and Poultry Trade in the EU Countries (AVEC) and carried out on its behalf by the consultancy ADAS, sensationally said that transitioning to the BCC would result in an additional production cost of 37.5% per kilogram of meat, a 35.4% increase in water consumption, equating to an additional 12.44 million cubic meters 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 kilogram 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), and the necessity to construct 9,692 new poultry houses, with an estimated cost of €8.24 billion, to maintain current production levels.
These effects on production would inevitably lead to higher prices that could exclude a large proportion of consumers from buying chicken meat or drastically increase imports from third countries with lower animal welfare standards, the report claimed.
Jones also has strong feelings about the report. I ask her first about the cost implications. When so many people are struggling with living costs, what is her reaction to the price of chicken grown under BCC standards?
Food poverty
“It’s a travesty that 25% are in food poverty in the UK,” she says. “But you know 75% can actually afford to pay better.”
She argues that if BCC were the baseline standard for all retailers then it wouldn’t have to compete in a “weird space” between standard and free range. “So, I think raising the baseline is what we’re trying to do.
“Welfare will inevitably have some cost associated with it.”
But aside from the issue of cost, Jones has some criticism of how the report was put together. “The methodology is quite cynical in some ways,” she claims. “What it’s doing is basing all its data on either breeder projections from the breeder manuals, so it’s not real data at all.
“They’ve given their worst case scenario. There are couple of things in the report, for instance feed conversion ratio they’ve given a 30 point difference.” She describes this as an exaggerated figure.
Jones also says the report does not describe other aspects that would help mitigate the cost and sustainability factors. These include “significantly less mortality with a slower growing bird” and fewer rejections. “They are undercooking that difference,” she says.
Slower growing breeds also tolerate a wider range of ingredients in their feed, meaning there is the potential to reduce soya. “It is an artificially inflated scenario of the true reality,” she says.
She points out that in the Netherlands all the retailers are signed up to the BCC and Norsk Kyling in Norway works with 100% BCC birds “and they have managed to do it.”
The price of poultry in those countries did rise when the commitments were made, she acknowledges, but the price came back down as they were able to scale up.
“I’m not saying it’s completely cost neutral but it hasn’t priced people out of chicken,”
She also notes that farmers love growing BCC chicken, as they are easier to manage.
Lower production levels
One of the big concerns for poultry businesses at the moment is that if you reduce stocking density by 20%, production will fall, and the deficit may well be filled with increased imports produced to lower standards.
“There are efficiencies that can be built into the system here,” she argues. “So even though you may be producing fewer birds if you can’t get new sheds, if you fully utilise the carcase, if you introduce new cuts of chicken into the menu, there are things you can do to mitigate fewer birds on the ground.”
In its official response to the AVEC report, CIWF also made the point that consumers may have to eat less chicken.
She makes the point that some of the biggest importers – the foodservice companies – are actually looking to bring in BCC compliant chicken from the likes of Poland and the Netherlands. “So rather than importing cheaper, they are importing at the BCC level,” she says.
So what’s next for Jones and CIWF?
She wants to continue campaigning to encourage retailers to sign up to the BCC. So far around 30% of the market is signed up to the BCC, but if all retailers came on board, it would be around 80% of UK production, a figure she describes as a “tipping point for change”.
And she also would like the new government to set the minimum UK standard for both domestic production and imports as the BCC. It might seem a big ask, but Jones has been campaigning on lower stocking densities since 2010, and with a new government on board, and precedents in other European countries, the industry should prepare itself for the possibility this will come to pass.