Welsh Parliament: Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales - Jan 24

Llyr Gruffydd MS: I've been approached by some egg producers in my region concerned at the impact on the sale of free-range eggs under avian influenza mandatory housing measures; I know you touched on this in committee last week. You'll know that the proposed changes in legislation in England and Scotland would remove the time limit for free-range hens to be housed in mandatory restrictions, and that change means that eggs produced by hens that are usually free range would still be marketed as such, even if they've been housed indoors for longer than 16 weeks, due, of course, to mandatory housing measures under avian influenza. Now, supermarkets have told producers in my region, apparently, that if the rules in Wales are different and that they can't still describe their eggs as free range, then they'll lose their contracts, and with it their livelihoods. So, will you consider adopting the same approach as England and Scotland to help protect the sector were there, of course, to be a significant outbreak of avian flu?

Lesley Griffiths MS (Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd): Thank you. Well, as you say, when a housing order is introduced, farmers may market eggs produced by housed hens as free range for the first 16 weeks of a housing order, and I think 16 weeks is a fair period of time for that to take place. I'm very aware that the European Union have decided to remove that 16-week derogation; that will obviously then apply to Northern Ireland. So, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Scottish Government have launched a joint consultation, which we are not taking part in. However, I'm very interested to see the outcomes of that consultation because I don't think either of those two Governments did enough work with consumers; it's far more towards business, if you like, than taking the consumers' views into consideration. But I have asked my officials to keep a very close eye on those consultations—I think it closes on something like 5 March; there's a little while to go yet—but I would be very interested to see that. But I think, you know, it's really important that we could have different policies within the UK. I absolutely recognise it could be more complicated, but I do think we have to take these decisions on balance, and that's what I've done.