MÜLHEIM AN DER RUHR, Germany, Feb. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- ALDI, one of the world's largest retail chains, has announced it is committed to selling only cage-free eggs at its stores in China. ALDI opened its first six stores in China in 2019, and has plans to expand to 50-100 stores in the coming years.
"ALDI CHINA is committed to transitioning to 100% of our shell eggs to be cage-free by 2025," the company announced in a statement circulated this week. ALDI's announcement comes on the heels of a similar commitment by retail giant METRO, which announced last month it was committing to sell only cage-free liquid and shell eggs at all of its stores globally, including at its nearly 100 locations in China.
"As an international company with global supply chains, the ALDI SOUTH Group is aware of its responsibility to respect animal welfare," said Juliane Bartel, Corporate Responsibility International manager at ALDI SOUTH Group, which runs ALDI operations in China. "In December 2017, the ALDI SOUTH Group issued an International Position Statement on Animal Welfare…This includes our commitment to sourcing 100% of our shell eggs from cage-free supply chains by 2025. This commitment has already been adopted at the international level, and that includes our operations in China."
Leading animal protection and food safety organizations around the world encourage a switch to cage-free eggs, which are less cruel to animals and safer for consumers. On caged egg farms, each egg-laying hen is confined for nearly her entire life in a cage so small she can barely turn around. The European Food Safety Authority has found cage-free eggs are much safer for consumers, with a dramatically lower risk of salmonella contamination compared to eggs from farms that confine hens in cages.
"An increasing number of international and domestic retailers, including METRO, city'super, City Shop and now ALDI, have committed to selling only cage-free eggs in China," said Kirsty Tuxford of Lever Foundation, a non-governmental organization that works with food companies to help them shift to cage-free eggs in Asia. "With this announcement, ALDI joins a growing list of over fifty of the world's leading food companies-including Costa Coffee, Starbucks, Hershey, Mondelez, Tesco, Unilever, Nestle, and many more-that have committed to going cage-free in China and across Asia."
ALDI, which operates over 11,000 stores in 19 countries, is recognized worldwide as a pioneer of the European discount food retail market.
Lever Foundation is an international animal protection non-governmental organization with staff operating in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States.
CONTACT
Kirsty Tuxford: kirsty@leverfoundation.org, +34 622 01 69 65
