2036 caged egg ban '10 years too soon' for SA producers

Decided by agriculture ministers in Perth last week, the new Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines state all caged eggs will be phased out by 2036, with individual states and territories left to enforce timelines.

The poultry standards were finalised by the Independent Poultry Panel commissioned by all agriculture ministers.

The standards are the culmination of an extensive stakeholder and public consultation process and underpinned by contemporary animal welfare science.

Although the 2036 deadline has been confirmed, industry professionals were hoping for an extra 10 years to phase out the practice due to costs, with many calling for compensation from governments to meet the cut off.

Despite this, state Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Clare Scriven said there was no planned compensation for producers.

"They have known for some time that this is coming," she said.

"I think a lot have already started the transition or have been prepared for it, so I'm not looking at compensation.

"We haven't finalised the timeframes for SA at this stage though, so it's something I'll be working through with industry."

With no timeframe announced in the state, Ms Scriven said she would not speculate on whether eggs would be phased out earlier in SA.

Commercial Egg Farmers Association of SA and Tasmania president Darren Letton, Pike River, who would prefer a 2046 deadline, said producers were seeking about $130 per bird to transition to barn or free range operations.

"13 years seems like a really long time to transition, but it's not that simple to switch," he said.

"There are issues with not having land readily available to expand, not being able to build sheds, it's not just one step and there are significant costs involved.

"If the government won't give monetary compensation, we need support in other ways.

"We'd need to be able to fast track processes to allow the transition like pushing building permits through councils or getting EPA approval because if we get caught up in red tape trying to get plans approved the 13 year deadline will come along very quickly."

While caged eggs make up make up roughly 50 per cent of the country's egg supply according to Mr Letton, only four producers in South Australia have caged eggs.

Mr Letton's business, Glenview Poultry Farm, houses 28,000 hens with 16,000 as cage and 12,000 as free range at about 4000 birds/ha.

"Our shed holds 16,000 chickens so to replace that I could put maybe 8000 in a barn or replace it with four free range operations," he said.

"A shed I just recently built cost me $700,000 and earth works cost me $100,000 because my farm isn't flat.

"If 50pc of the industry is all trying to convert to barn or free range, the infrastructure won't be readily available and it's going to cost a lot on top of existing loans.

"We understand the industry is moving in this way, but the 2036 timeframe seems almost impossible without help."

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While Mr Letton said an official timeline for the industry had to be achieved, discrepancies between states could also cause concern.

"If one state bans the eggs before the other, they'll still be able to source eggs from interstate," he said.

"That could lead to a situation similar to something that happened in the UK where when disease broke out in flocks and egg supply disappeared, cage eggs were able to be imported despite a ban on cage egg production.

"It happens in Tasmania with cage eggs from interstate already and it hardly seems fair for those who may have to transition sooner than others and have the market disrupted."