Campaign for high welfare chicken boosts sales

Sales of higher welfare chicken are continuing to rise, following high profile campaigns by TV celebrities earlier this year, claimed the Royal...

Sales of higher welfare chicken are continuing to rise, following high profile campaigns by TV celebrities earlier this year, claimed the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

The RSPCA has called on supermarkets to set a target to sell only chicken that is free-range, organic, or reared according to its own welfare standards, by 2010.

The call will be given added publicity when Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, TV chef and supporter of the cause, starts a new series of River Cottage on Channel 4 on May 28.

According to the RSPCA, Waitrose has reported sales of its Select Farm chicken - reared in conditions that exceed the industry’s standards - have increased by 15% since the original campaign started in January and are still rising. Its free-range chicken sales have increased by 22% and its organic sales by 39%.

Asda plans to stock 25% more free-range chicken by the end of the month and a further 50% more by the end of September, according to the RSPCA. It will also stock 50% more organic chicken and a Freedom Food corn-fed line in August.

The RSPCA reported that South West chicken processor Lloyd Maunder planned to raise the number of chickens produced to the Freedom Food scheme to 250,000/week by August. This compares with 75,000/week or 15% of its total output in January.

The number of birds reared to RSPCA welfare standards under the Freedom Food scheme or other free-range or organic standards has soared from 19M in 2004 to 55M in 2007, claimed the RSPCA.