The grocery stores Netto, Føtex and Bilka are well-known names for Norwegians who have spent a week or two in a Danish holiday home.
The stores in these chains cover just over a third of the Danish grocery market. Now they are taking a radical step. During the year, the most affordable versions of fresh chicken will be phased out from the shelves.
These are chickens that animal rights activists refer to as “turbo chickens”, due to the short time it takes before the animals have grown large enough to end up on our plates.
The mentioned stores are part of the Salling Group, which with its 650 stores sells every third chicken to the Danish consumer market.
According to the newspaper Politics is also frozen chicken and chicken used for ready meals and cold cuts for the trip to be replaced, although this may take a little longer.
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In any case, the fresh chickens make up 80-85 per cent of the total chicken sales for Salling Group.
– This moves the market
The move to get rid of the fast-growing chickens will lead to 20 million Danish broilers now “living a longer and better life”, according to the animal welfare organization Anima.
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– Salling Group confirms that this is the way to go for the grocery chains. When a market leader says no to pushing industrial chickens to the limit, this moves the entire market. Not only in Denmark, but throughout the Nordic region, says Niklas Fjeldberg, campaign manager at Anima, to Børsen.
So-called turbo chickens grow unnaturally fast, more specifically from 50 grams to over 2 kilos in a month, Fjeldberg emphasizes.
– Norway must wake up
– This causes the animals significant welfare problems such as difficulty walking, breathing problems, organ failure and weakened immune system. Now is the time for all Norwegian chains to take their responsibility as well. Coop and Kiwi (Norgesgruppen, editor’s note) must wake up and understand that this is the way to go, says Fjeldberg.
The chains respond that animal welfare is about more than breed and longevity. You can read a more comprehensive answer a little further down in the article.
Hard pressure on «turbo chickens»
Rema 1000 has already replaced the fast-growing chicken breed Ross 308 with the slower-growing breed Hubbard, which spends 50 days growing ready for slaughter.
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– More than race
Bård Gultvedt, director of business policy and government contact in Norgesgruppen, tells Børsen that Norwegian chicken production maintains a high international level.
– We are well acquainted with the discussion that Anima raises. Good animal welfare and animal health is about much more than breed, he says.
– The interaction with other factors such as good operation and follow-up from the farmer, the correct feed composition and the use of well-being measures in the chicken houses is also important, Gultvedt writes in an e-mail.
He adds that the shops owned by Norgesgruppen (including chains such as Meny, Kiwi and Joker, editor’s note) sell chicken from several different breeds.
– We have both conventional chicken and slower-growing chicken. This means that consumers have choices, Gultvedt emphasizes.
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Environmental manager Knut Lutnæs in Coop Norge states the following to Anima’s chicken requirements:
– Animal welfare is important for Coop and our suppliers are very concerned about developing chicken production further in an animal-friendly and sustainable direction. Coop closely monitors various initiatives related to chicken production both at home and abroad.
– Coop offers both organic, slow-growing and conventional chicken, so that customers can choose. Lifespan is just one of many important parameters associated with sustainable and animal-friendly chicken production, says Lutnæs.
In October last year, Børsen was able to report that the animal protection organization Anima intended to put pressure on the Danish Rema chain to get them to follow in the footsteps of the Norwegian parent company.
Jonas Schrøder, Head of Communications at Rema 1000 in Denmark, stated that they were already in the process of relocating.
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