Producer Associations
Who are they?
What do they do?
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Represent Canada’s egg farmers across the nation
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Manage the supply of eggs using supply management
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Markets eggs to Canadians
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Help develop standards for egg farming in Canada
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Audit farms
Stance
EFC, and their provincial partners, use inspections and third-party audits to hold farmers accountable to the industry's welfare and food safety standards. The list of requirements farmers must meet to pass inspection is set in EFC's "Animal Care Program". These requirements were reviewed by NFACC and based off of the Code of Practice for Laying Hens.
Enriched cages “...provide the benefits afforded by conventional production, plus additional features that allow hens to exhibit specific behaviours which may include perching, scratching and nesting”
- Tim Lambert, CEO of Egg Farmers of Canada, source
Egg boards across the country are using guidelines and mitigations strategies laid out in NFACC's Code of Practice to move away from battery cages.
“a central outcome when we consider something as sizable as transitioning an entire agricultural supply chain is that the egg supply matches consumer demand across all product varieties and that prices remain reasonable for Canadian families, especially at a time when all Canadian families are dealing with inflationary pressures.”
- Roger Pelissero, Egg Farmers Canada Chair (source)
Challenges for this transition period:
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Significant changes to pullet (young hens) rearing housing systems.
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Many current farm structures will be difficult to refurbish and will require completely new barns to be built.
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Farmers will have to take hens out of production while new housing systems are being built.
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This impacts the industry’s ability to meet market demand for eggs.
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