We made it!
E.Leclerc Supermarkets will sell only
cage-free eggs
After months of meetings with Equalia, the international supermarket chain E.Leclerc has published its commitment to sell only eggs from cage-free hens from 2025 onwards, applying this policy also to eggs used as ingredients in all its own brand products.
The adoption of this policy by E.Leclerc will lead to essential improvements in animal welfare in the production of a considerable part of the food market, positively affecting around 300,000 hens in Spain.
On the other hand, the application of the published commitment is not limited to E.Leclerc establishments in Spain, since it would also extend to the rest of the countries where the chain is present: Portugal, Poland, Slovenia and Andorra, where the date of publication of the commitment is still awaited.
When these countries are taken into account, the number of birds that will no longer spend their lives confined in cages increases to 2 million.
This initiative is in line with the European Green Pact, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Equalia celebrates that the hypermarket and supermarket chain E.Leclerc in Spain has accepted its collaboration as a boost to improve the living conditions of laying hens.
Help us to continue building a fairer and more sustainable food system
Companies that have committed to supply only cage-free eggs
Intensive industrial egg production farm. Endless corridors where tens of thousands of hens spend their entire lives confined in cages.
European welfare legislation for food animals stipulates that "an animal's freedom of movement must not be restricted in such a way as to cause unnecessary suffering". It also states that "where an animal is continuously or regularly confined, it must be provided with appropriate space for its psychological and ethological needs, in accordance with accumulated experience and scientific knowledge".
European Convention for the Protection of Animals intended for Consumption
"Eggs produced in systems that demonstrate improved animal welfare have an added value, and are therefore of higher quality.”
María Villaluenga, press officer and spokesperson for Equalia
This initiative has been possible in part by grants from the Center for Effective Altruism, Pollination Project and the Open Philanthropy Project Fund, an advisory fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
