Lithuanian-based retail group Maxima Grupė has announced that it will stop selling caged-hen eggs in its Baltic stores by 2025.
Maxima Grupė’s stores in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will cease the sale of these eggs, due to growing customer concern about animal rights and well-being, the retailer said. The retailer’s Polish division announced a similar decision last November.
Currently, over half of the retailer’s eggs come from caged hens. They will be phased out gradually, with the retailer making sure that neither customers nor suppliers are affected adversely and the transitioning is managed effectively.
Priorities
The retailer has said that it will prioritise increasing its demand for, and supply of, cage-free eggs, working on an educational campaign and cooperating closely with manufacturers, public authorities and other interest groups for this new policy.
Maxima Grupė sells organic, barn and free-range eggs. As legally required, the eggs have markings to indicate their production method, with caged-hen eggs marked with the number three.
Early in 2017, the retailer launched an educational campaign surrounding caged-hen eggs in stores to inform its customers. Furthermore, it has already met with producers, suppliers, animal-rights organisations, public authorities and other retailers to seek the best market-wide solutions.
Community Responsibility
“As active and responsible members of the communities we operate in, we care about the quality, price and production methods of all goods traded by Maxima Grupė retail chains,” said Robertas Čipkus, CEO.
“We feel the growing concern of consumers about the animal rights and well-being of animals, both in the world and in the Baltic States,” Čipkus added. “Following that, Maxima Grupė has set a goal to stop sourcing eggs from caged hens by 2025 in all Baltic states.”
The Lithuanian retailer is following a trend that has gained traction among several European retailers and food companies. Tesco, Nestlé, Carrefour and El Corte Inglés, among others, all recently committed to cage-free eggs by 2025.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Kevin Duggan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
