2120 final report.pdf - Agra CEAS Consulting

APPENDIX 1: MEMBER STATE REPORTSA 2002 LEI report showed the following:Dutch consumers show little price preference when eggs are involved. Consumption generallyremains stable. As long as the price of eggs remains within a margin of €0.70 and €1.60 per box(4, 6 or 10 units) eggs are price inelastic. This low price elasticity can be explained by the lowabsolute price of eggs in relation to other foods.The increasing demand for alternative eggs is market driven and appears to be relativelyinsensitive to the general economic situation.In areas with a high percentage of immigrants, environmentally and welfare friendly products aremuch less frequently chosen, with the cheapest products are chosen instead. This is likely toreflect the fact that immigrant populations tend to be less well off and food consumption willaccount for a greater proportion of their total expenditure.The Dutch consumer is generally brand loyal when it comes to eggs. The same product isgenerally continually chosen; a change of type and brand of eggs seldom occurs. How choices forspecific brands are made is not known, but it is suspected that publicity regarding animal welfarehave caused a shift in demand in favour of eggs from alternative systems.A1.10.5. The impact of Directive 1999/74/ECA1.10.5.1. Implementation to dateThe Decision on Laying Hens 2003 (Legkippenbesluit 2003) implements EU Directive 1999/74/EC.This Decision was only adopted in April 2004 and came into force on 19 May 2004. Under the initialproposal, all cages for laying hens were to be prohibited from 2012 as cages were considered to beundesirable from an animal welfare point of view, nor were they expected to remain economicallyviable. However, following elections in 2002, the new government decided that Dutch animalwelfare rules should not be more stringent than the base European rules. As a result, the enrichedcages were re-introduced in the proposal and this was subsequently adopted. This means that in linewith Chapter II, Art.5.2 of Directive 1999/74 in the Netherlands enriched cages will be permitted forhousing hens after 1 January 2012.There has been no significant investment in enriched cages to date in the Netherlands, although asmall number of producers have installed enriched cages. A further number (the exact number is notknown) have installed ‘enrichable’ cages which will comply with the Directive once the cage furniturehas been added and stocking density adjusted.The interim increase in space allowance prompted most producers to invest in extended cage doorswhich increase the effective surface area of the cage 112 . This cost around €1.75 per cage and waswidely seen as preferable to removing a hen (no investment cost, but loss of one hen) or connectingcages together and removing one hen (€1 per cage plus the loss of half a hen).112 This extended door appears to raise questions which are currently awaiting legal clarification.. Within the UK the extended door isgenerally accepted while in France the application is allowed, but is not formally approved. The Dutch government initially allowed thedoor, but has now said it will not acknowledge the space gained in the cage as a result of the extended door.253