2120 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE VARIOUS SYSTEMS TO KEEP LAYING HENS1. IntroductionAccording to Article 10 of Directive 1999/74/EC the Commission is expected to present a report onthe various systems for keeping laying hens outlined in the Directive taking into account the socioeconomicimpact. In order to prepare for this report Directorate-General Health and ConsumerProtection (DG SANCO) awarded this contract to study the issues involved to Agra CEASConsulting in October 2003.The research programme was split into two stages. The first stage provides an analysis of the currentsituation in the EU 2 egg sector and in particular comments on progress to date and possibleimplications of a move towards implementation of the ban on unenriched cages in line with ChapterII, Article 5.2 of the Directive. It also provides a detailed overview of the production costs andproduction systems in place in the EU and a number of third countries. The second stage uses anEU-wide sector model to provide an assessment of the likely socio-economic impact of a range ofscenarios for the sector when the prohibition on production in unenriched cage systems applies from1 January 2012. It should be noted that this research is not intended to address or make anyjudgement on the welfare aspects of the different systems of keeping laying hens, nor does it addressthe veterinary and human health issues arising from these different systems. This document presentsour report on both stages of this research as specified in the terms of reference.The research for this project has been conducted by Dr. Dylan Bradley and Conrad Caspari of AgraCEAS in conjunction with Pedro Serrano and Isabel Ribeiro of AgroGes in Portugal, LolaLyberopoulos of Hypodomi in Greece, Laura Berende-Verhoeven in the Netherlands and Lynn Daftof Promar International in the United States, Arina Korchmaryov in the Ukraine and WieslawLopaciuk in Poland. The modelling work was undertaken by Dr. Iain Fraser, Senior Lecturer atImperial College, London. It has been undertaken by means of extensive desk research in the periodJanuary to July 2004 and interviews in all the countries under review. We would like to take thisopportunity to thank all those who assisted us in this effort.It should be noted that official statistics covering the EU poultry and egg sector are not as completeas for other livestock sectors such as beef, pork, sheep/goats and milk and dairy products. This isdue to the almost complete lack of EU legislation requiring collection of statistics relating to thesector. The report therefore provides as much data as possible at an EU level but considerably moredata is presented from our extensive field research and from national sources. In this context, wealso note that where possible we have presented data covering the whole of the EU-25, but that inline with the ToR, the bulk of the data collected relates to the EU-15 as the research took place2For the purposes of this report it should be noted that unless explicit reference is made to the EU-25 the terms ‘EU’ and ‘EU-15’ referto the Union as constituted prior to 1 May 2004. The term EU-25 refers to the EU as it is currently constituted and the term EU-N10refers to the ten Member States which acceded to the Union on 1 May 2004. The term EU-12 refers to the EU as constituted prior to theaccession of Austria, Finland and Sweden.1