Special payment by Lidl and Kaufland to pet owners

At the beginning of 2021, the Initiative Tierwohl (ITW) will provide additional financial support in the amount of 50 million euros receive. The Schwarz Group (Lidl and Kaufland) made these funds available to the animal welfare initiative against the background of the currently extremely difficult situation for pig farmers. The money is intended to support the pig farmers who will take part in the next phase of the program and thus contribute to increasing animal welfare and the further dissemination of the ITW seal on pork products.
All pig farms participating in the 2021-2023 program phase will receive one One-off payment of 3.000 euros, if they have successfully passed an ITW audit by June 30, 2021 at the latest. In addition, piglet producers receive a remuneration increased by EUR 1 from then for the entire duration of the program a total of 4,07 euros per animal. Pig farmers receive for each fattening pig slaughtered between July 1st, 2021 and December 31st, 2021, in addition to the animal welfare payment already set in the amount of 5,28 euros an additional surcharge of EUR 1, which is paid directly to the animal owners from the ITW fund. The ITW shareholders decided this in consultation with Lidl and Kaufland.

Klaus Gehrig (Schwarz Gruppe): “We are pleased that the concrete implementation of the payment could be worked out and decided so quickly together with the ITW. A good signal for farmers and an important signal for more animal welfare.”

"The labeling of pork with the ITW seal from July 2021 and the associated necessary expansion of the ITW is an enormous challenge for the industry. For the pig farmers in particular, the associated strategic decisions for their farm are of great importance. We are pleased that we can provide additional financial support for this decision through the special payment from Lidl and Kaufland," explains Dr. Alexander Hinrichs, Managing Director of the Animal Welfare Initiative. "Especially in the currently tense economic situation among animal owners, this additional remuneration helps us to get closer to our goal."

So far, 4.416 pig farmers have already registered for the new program phase from 2021. From 2021, around 24,7 million pigs will be kept in the stalls of the participating sow farmers, piglet rearers and fatteners - including 14,6 million fattening pigs. From January 2021, the next registration option for pig farms will start.

From the beginning of January 2021, interested pig farmers will find further information on remuneration at www.initiative-tierwohl.de can retrieve.