Poultry industry warns of wrong ways with the state animal welfare label
Berlin, September 10, 2018. The German poultry industry intervened with an interjection in the current political discussion about the design of the state animal welfare label. At today's meeting in Hanover, the executive committee of the ZDG Central Association of the German Poultry Industry e. V. warned against ignoring the high-volume and high-turnover bulk consumer segment in a state animal welfare label. “More than 60 percent of poultry meat is sold via restaurants, canteens, refectories and other large-scale consumer kitchens. A state animal welfare label must take this important marketing channel of out-of-home consumption into account," demands ZDG President Friedrich-Otto Ripke.
Gastronomy clearly has some catching up to do when it comes to offering animal welfare products
Compared to the food retail trade (LEH), the catering trade has a clear need to catch up when it comes to offering animal welfare products: “While around 75 percent of the chicken and turkey meat products offered in the food retail trade come from companies belonging to the Economic Initiative Animal Welfare Poultry, there is a lack of a corresponding offer outside the home -area completely." Only by expanding the scope of the planned state animal welfare labeling to the important and growing bulk consumer market can the goal of "broad instead of niche" desired by politicians be achieved, according to Ripke: "Minister Klöckner says she wants the noticeably improve the husbandry conditions of livestock. Then your label must not ignore the market-relevant bulk consumer segment.”
Nor can it be explained to the consumer why meat products in the food retail trade should bear a state animal welfare label, but not the same products in the catering trade, says Ripke: “If I eat turkey steak or chicken breast in the canteen for lunch, I won’t find any information about animal welfare – if I buy the exact same meat product in the supermarket for dinner in the afternoon, it has been awarded the state animal welfare label. Nobody understands that."
About the ZDG
The Central Association of German Poultry Industry Association represents as a trade roof and top organization, the interests of the German poultry industry at national and EU level towards political, official and professional organizations, the public and abroad. The approximately 8.000 members are organized in federal and state associations.
