Animal welfare initiative still interesting

From September 1st to 30th, 2022, interested piglet producers could register to participate in the Imitative Animal Welfare (ITW). The ITW is now completing the registration phase: in the future, a further 215 farms with a total of a good 2,19 million animals per year will take part. In total, there are 1.318 piglet producers with around 15 million piglets per year in the ITW system. The inclusion of further piglet producers supports the long-term goal of the economy from 2024 to ensure identity from birth.

"We are very happy about the participation of other piglet producers, because this will spread animal welfare bit by bit. We would have liked to have taken on more piglet producers, but the number shows that the ITW system is still interesting for piglet producers,” explains Robert Römer, Managing Director of the Animal Welfare Initiative. "In the medium to long term, we need more piglet producers in the system in order to be able to guarantee piglet husbandry under ITW conditions from birth to fattening from 2024."

The next step is to audit the companies. After the piglet producers have received their approval, they can market their ITW animals accordingly. The term of the operations is limited to June 30, 2024. The farms receive the animal welfare fee of €3,57 for each piglet that can be proven to have been delivered to a fattener who participates in the animal welfare initiative. This gradually closes the chain between fattening and piglet rearing.

About the animal welfare initiative
With the Animal Welfare Initiative (ITW), which was launched in 2015, the partners from agriculture, the meat industry, the food trade and gastronomy are committed to their shared responsibility for animal husbandry, animal health and animal welfare in livestock farming. The animal welfare initiative supports farmers in implementing measures for the welfare of their livestock that go beyond the legal standards. The implementation of these measures is controlled across the board by the animal welfare initiative. The product seal of the Animal Welfare Initiative only identifies products that come from animals from participating farms of the Animal Welfare Initiative. The Animal Welfare Initiative is gradually establishing more animal welfare on a broad scale and is continuously being further developed. www.initiative-tierwohl.de

The partners of the initiative are:

• Federal Association of German Sausage and Ham Producers (BVWS)
• German Farmers Association
• German Raiffeisen Association
• Trade Association for Market Economy eV
• Association of the Meat Industry eV
• Central Association of the German Poultry Industry eV