SÃO PAULO—Carrefour, Brazil’s leading food retailer, has announced it will sell exclusively cage-free eggs at its supermarkets throughout Brazil, becoming the first supermarket company in the country to make this commitment. Carrefour operates almost 650 stores throughout Brazil and will complete its transition to cage-free eggs by 2025 for Carrefour-brand eggs and by 2028 for all other brands sold in its supermarkets.
This announcement comes after many years of working with Humane Society International/Brazil (HSI) and discussions with other organizations, such as Mercy For Animals, Fórum Nacional de Proteção e Defesa Animal, and Animal Equality. Carrefour and HSI will continue to work together on the implementation of this policy. A joint workshop and farm tour for the company’s Brazilian egg suppliers to share best practices and technical expertise in cage-free production are already scheduled to take place at Carrefour headquarters in France this year.
Sign the “no cages” pledge: Let them move!
In a policy statement, Paulo Pianez, Carrefour sustainability and corporate responsibility director in Brazil, stated: “With this commitment, we are taking another important step towards promoting sustainability in our supply chain. We understand that as a retailer we have the role of creating a valuable link between the consumer and the production chain, collaborating to promote significant changes in consumption habits.”
Maria Fernanda Martin, animal welfare specialist for HSI Farm Animals in Brazil, said: “We applaud Carrefour for becoming the first supermarket chain in Brazil to pledge to sell only cage-free eggs, and we look forward to continuing to work with the company and its egg suppliers on the implementation of this policy. This move will relieve millions of egg-laying hens from a life of extreme confinement and sends a clear message to the egg industry in Brazil that the future of egg production is cage-free.”
Egg-laying hens in Brazil are typically confined for their whole lives in wire cages so small that they cannot even fully stretch their wings. Cage-free production systems typically offer hens higher levels of welfare, allowing the birds to express more of their natural behaviors, including moving around, laying eggs in nests, perching, and fully spreading their wings. HSI works together with the food industry in Brazil and worldwide to help ensure a successful transition to these higher animal welfare production systems, through farm tours, technical workshops on cage-free systems, and the exchange of best practices.
Carrefour joins other food corporations that have committed to sourcing exclusively cage-free eggs in Brazil and throughout Latin America. Nestlé, the largest food company in the world, and Unilever have committed to a global cage-free egg supply chain by 2025. After working with HSI, Burger King and Arcos Dorados, which operates McDonald’s in Brazil and 19 other countries in the region, committed to switching to 100 percent cage-free eggs, as did other restaurant operators, accounting for thousands of restaurants in Brazil and Latin America. Brazil’s leading food service companies, including Compass Group (GRSA), Sodexo, Sapore, and Grupo Lemos Passos also announced cage-free egg policies in partnership with HSI. Alsea, the largest restaurant operator in Latin America and Spain, and Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bakery company, announced their cage-free egg policies after several years of talks with HSI specialists. Other leading food and hospitality companies such as Kraft-Heinz, International Meal Company (IMC), Cargill, Brazil Fast Food Corporation (BFFC), Subway, Intercontinental Hotels Group, AccorHotels, Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Giraffas, Barilla, Divino Fogão, Habib’s, Grupo CRM, and Bauducco have also pledged to go cage-free in Brazil. Take action and donate to help chickens and other animals.
Media contact: Maria Fernanda Martin, mfmartin@hsi.org, +55 (11) 9 5770 9922