LTO Noord wants the cage obligation for chickens to be lifted. According to the farmers’ association, the Netherlands should follow the example of neighboring countries.
The chickens have been indoors in our country for a long time because the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Safety considers the risk of contamination with bird flu to be too great. LTO sees the situation differently.
“It is amazing that the confinement obligation is still in force. Because in January we had the last case of bird flu at a commercial chicken farmer,” says Piet Faber of the poultry farming department of LTO Noord. “Last year we had outbreaks in June and in the same month the animals were allowed to go outside again in some regions.”
Faber points out that chickens abroad are often allowed to go outside. “That is also the problem, because the Dutch egg trade also has many customers in neighboring countries. Complete packages of eggs are sold to supermarkets there. The Dutch traders cannot deliver at the moment and that puts our country at a disadvantage. That is also not fair in the framework of competitive relations.”
According to Faber, there is ‘no movement whatsoever’ from the government and the confinement obligation therefore seems to remain in force for the time being. “I can’t understand that. I can’t explain it to our members either. It’s very frustrating and unreasonable.”