Pan Pa’ Ya!, one of the leading restaurant and coffee shop chains in Colombia, with 60 locations, has announced it is joining with Humane Society International to improve animal welfare in its supply chain, committing to sourcing exclusively cage-free eggs.
Pan Pa Ya’ is already using cage-free eggs in many of its products and will be 100 percent cage-free by 2025.
Pedro Felipe Estrada, business manager of Pan Pa’ Ya, stated: “We are proud to lead this initiative in Colombia, as animal welfare is a fundamental part of our corporate social responsibility and responsible consumption policies. We’re happy to be able to offer high quality and welfare products to our clients and we’ll continue working with Humane Society International on this and other animal protection initiatives.”
Elissa Lane, deputy director of HSI Farm Animals, stated: “We congratulate Pan Pa’ Ya for being one of the first Colombian food companies to commit to only sourcing cage-free eggs, and we’re happy to work with the company on this important initiative. Pan Pa’ Ya, like many major multinational companies, understands that consumers no longer accept the production practices of their favorite companies without question. We applaud Pan Pa’ Ya for helping lead the way towards a corporate-social responsibility standard in Colombia that includes animal welfare improvements in their supply chains.”
In Colombia, approximately 75 percent of egg-laying hens are confined in wire battery cages, so small they care barely move or stretch their wings. Each battery cage confines five to 10 egg-laying hens and each animal has less space than a letter-sized piece of paper or an iPad, on which to spend her whole life. Hens confined in battery cages are unable to express important natural behaviors, including nesting, dustbathing, and perching. Cage-free systems generally offer hens higher levels of animal welfare than battery cage systems.
Pan Pa’ Ya is one of the first Colombian companies to commit to using exclusively cage-free eggs and follows the path of several multinational companies that have made similar commitments in Colombia and throughout the region, including Grupo Bimbo, Compass Group, Sodexo, McDonald’s, Burger King, Alsea (Archies y Dominos), Hoteles Estelar, IMC Colombia (J&C Delicias y R.A. Catering) and Unilever.
Media contacts:
Colombia: Laura Agudelo, lafripreseria@gmail.com
Estados Unidos: Raúl Arce-Contreras, rcontreras@humanesociety.org, +1 301-721-6440