Chef’s chicken campaigns working
According to some supermarkets, higher welfare chicken sales have jumped significantly, and there are indications that they will continue to increase, as a result of January's high profile chicken campaigns.
Separate campaigns, led by the RSPCA and celebrity chefs Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver, highlighted some of the welfare problems of chicken production.
The RSPCA challenged supermarkets to become the first to sell only free-range, organic or chickens reared to the RSPCA's standards by 2010.
More than 50,000 people signed a RSPCA petition calling on retailers to stop selling standard chicken.
Fearnley-Whittingstall will put chickens back under the media spotlight in a series of programmes starting on Wednesday, and he has also today announced a new initiative to lobby a leading supermarket not to sell standard chicken.
The following supermarkets and a chicken producer confirmed to the RSPCA that January's campaigns have changed shopping habits.
Waitrose:
- 15 per cent increase in sales of Waitrose Select Farm chicken (reared in conditions that exceed the industry's standards) with sales still increasing.
- 22 per cent increase in free-range chicken sales
- 39 per cent increase in organic chicken sales
Asda (plans to stock):
- 25 per cent more free-range chicken by the end of the month and a further 50 per cent by the end of September.
- 50 per cent more organic chicken and a Freedom Food corn-fed line in August.
Somerfield:
- 50 per cent increase in free-range poultry sales.
- 40 per cent increase in sales of higher welfare fresh poultry.
- Expects increase in sales of higher welfare and free-range poultry from five per cent of total fresh poultry sales in January to 14-15 per cent by December.
- Plans to launch a new range of RSPCA Freedom Food assured higher welfare poultry in May, which is expected to account for five per cent of standard poultry sales.
Marks and Spencer:
- Stocks Oakham chicken, reared in conditions that exceed the industry's standards, as well as free-range and organic, and has acknowledged increased chicken sales.
Dr Marc Cooper, an RSPCA farm animal scientist said: "These figures demonstrate how people can make a difference when making an informed decision about the type of meat they buy.
"Because more consumers have been prepared to pay more for chickens which have been reared to higher welfare standards, they have created an increased demand for the product, which has encouraged more farmers to change the way they rear their birds.
"If people keep up the demand for higher welfare chicken the revolution will continue."
Words: Clare Riley
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