German retailer Rewe Group has announced plans to extend its ‘Spitz & Bube’ animal welfare pilot project after a successful test phase. With the project, Rewe made a commitment to only feature free range eggs from hens whose beaks were not painfully shortened.
In addition, the ‘Spitz & Bube’ project places special focus on rearing male chickens that are usually killed immediately after hatching because of their lack of benefit to the poultry industry.
Planned Expansions
Together with its producers, Rewe Group introduced the ‘Spitz & Bube’ project in some parts of western Germany in 2016. Now it will now be extended to all Rewe supermarkets in Germany because of increasing customer demand.
Rewe Group also announced plans to expand the ‘Spitz & Bube’ concept to organic and barn eggs. The organic eggs will first be sold in Bavaria from September onwards, with barn eggs following in Thuringia and Saxony shortly after.
In June 2016, Rewe Group issued a voluntary declaration to only sell eggs from hens with uncut beaks from September 2017 onwards. It is one of the first German retailers to adopt this stance ahead of legislation banning these eggs that is set to be introduced in mid-2018.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Larissa Zimmer. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
