Lidl Germany to increase broiler welfare standards

By Mahi Klosterhalfen @ 2024-11-01T13:59 (+2)

Hi Friends,

After two years of tireless campaigning and countless talks with Lidl, we have managed to secure a commitment for broilers in Germany. Lidl published its new objective for broilers in its revised purchasing policy on its website. It says the following:

• We will convert our range of fresh poultry to Haltungsform level 3 (German industry labeling scheme) as a minimum standard by the end of 2030 at the latest, provided that there is sufficient availability of product on the market.
• If there is sufficient availability of product on the market, we will convert our sausage range to at least Haltungsform level 3 by 2030. In the first step, we will convert 30% of our own-brand Metzgerfrisch sausage range to at least Haltungsform level 3 by the end of 2024 and 50% by the end of 2025.

Haltungsform is the welfare labeling scheme the German retailers use. Level 3 covers lower stocking density (29kg/m²), access to outdoor climate (usually winter gardens), enrichment, slower growing breeds and animal health monitoring. Additionally Lidl commits to important requirements that we have called for during our negotiations (that bring their commitment even closer to the ECC criteria):

• Lidl will publish a roadmap and report progress regularly.
• Lidl only accepts poultry meat from farms that use multi-phase CO2 stunning processes.
• Lidl will only use breeds from the RSPCA positive list.
• Lidl does not accept any future worsening of the current Haltungsform 3 criteria.

Because of these add-ons, Lidl now meets all of our "Haltungsform 3+" (or "HF3+") criteria.

While we don't like the “provided that there is sufficient availability of product on the market” caveat, we think that the development of a roadmap and annual reporting are good signs that Lidl actually wants to fulfill this commitment. Lidl  also just re-opened an important line of communication that they had shut down when we started the campaign. This also  points to the conclusion  that we can now work with Lidl on the when and how.

We now have 2.5 of the four major retailers in Germany committed to implement HF3+ (Lidl as 0.5 of Schwarz Group and Rewe Group) or ECC (Aldi) by 2030. This is a huge success for the chickens and I think we're now past the tipping point. The Lidl commitment alone means better living conditions for many millions of animals (I think more than 50 million per year and we're quite sure it's less than 100 million per year).

We could not have reached this success without every single organization who supported the campaign. Special thanks go out to all members of the Lidl working group: Animal Welfare Observatory, THL UK, Open Cages, Otwarte Klatki, Project 1882 and Essere Animali! And even more groups have been and are supporting the international Lidl campaign - thank you to all of the groups and individuals who put together an amazing campaign! The campaign will continue in several countries.

Since Lidl Germany’s commitment is very close to the ECC and should have very similar welfare outcomes, we hope that this commitment will help to convince other national Lidl offices to join the ECC.

Best wishes,
Mahi