Country Fresh Pullets say they will stop producing pullets for the organic sector if new draft standards for organic rearing go ahead.
Steve Carlisle says the company would walk away rather than continuing to rear organic pullets under the proposed rules. His reaction comes after the draft standards, which have been developed by the Advisory Committee on Organic Standards (ACOS), were put out for consultation by Defra. On completion of the consultation process, these proposed standards will be forwarded to Brussels along with proposals from other member states for consideration by the EU, which will make the final decision.
The new rules would require pullets to be reared on organic land and Steve says he would not be prepared to put his land through conversion – particularly given the fragile nature of the organic market currently. "If you are a pullet rearer you will have to have an organic pullet site to let your birds out onto organic land at 12 weeks. I haven’t got any rearing farms on organic land, I am not going to go through the hoops of getting into conversion for a market when I don’t know how big it is going to be and until the final standards are agreed," said Steve.
In June the Ranger reported on fears that organic egg producers could face a shortage of pullets because of the uncertainty over the standards. Pullets for organic systems are currently required only to be raised to organic feed and veterinary standards. The EU derogation under which this arrangement exists comes to an end on December 31 2011. The industry has been waiting for politicians to decide exactly what rules will be enforced from the beginning of 2012. Without the derogation, pullet rearing would have to become completely organic but each member state is expected to submit its own proposals for what rules should apply from the beginning of 2012. The draft standards developed by ACOS would form the basis of the UK’s submission.
Steve Carlisle says the draft proposals are unrealistic for Country Fresh, which produced 107,000 pullets for the organic industry last year.
"The problem is that even if I started conversion now, it takes a year to convert. By August next year I could put pullets down but even then I would only just hit the derogation deadline at the end of December 2011. I don’t think its achievable unless we are given extra time once the standards are agreed."
He said that conversion was not the only problem raised by the draft standards. "Letting the pullets out at 12 weeks will also interfere with vaccination programmes and sexual maturity. We will either have very forward birds in the middle of summer or very backward birds in the middle of winter."
Steve said that the company would keep its position under review as the consultation process developed.
BFREPA vice chairman Jeff Vergerson said the proposals would not be good news financially for organic egg producers. "It will put prices up again at a time when organic eggs are already losing demand because they are very expensive, anyway."
Jeff said the proposals would radically change the way pullets were reared for the organic industry. "It will put costs up at a time when the organic egg industry is already struggling. Lots of people have had to drop out and this may cause even more to do so. If the EU wants to have sustainable agriculture this is an expensive way to achieve that."
Defra’s organic unit has sent out copies of the draft standards to various interested parties. In an accompanying letter, the unit said, "The EU organic standards currently allow non-organically reared pullets for egg production of not more than 18 weeks of age to be brought onto an organic livestock unit when organically reared pullets are not available, provided that the pullets are reared in compliance with the organic feed and veterinary requirements set out in Articles 19 to 25 of Commission Regulation (EC) 889/2008 are complied with. This provision is due to expire on 31 December 2011, which would mean that as of 1 January 2012, non-organically reared pullets over three days old would not be allowed to be brought onto an organic livestock unit."
The letter continued, "This matter has been discussed by our Advisory Committee on Organic Standards (ACOS) who are of the opinion that the general EU organic standards (for poultry) would not be entirely suitable for pullets and that specific standards for the rearing of pullets should be developed. ACOS is therefore developing some draft organic standards for the rearing of pullets, which are attached with this letter. It is expected that the European Commission will discuss the expiry of the provision at a future Standing Committee on Organic Farming and the UK will use these draft standards when raising the possibility of developing a set of organic standards for pullet rearing.
"The draft organic standards developed by ACOS incorporate the current feed and veterinary requirements in Council Regulation (EC) 834/2007 and Commission Regulation (EC) 889/2008. They also incorporate discussions at recent ACOS meetings on housing, stocking densities and flock sizes as well as some of the proposals for standards for the rearing of organic pullets that the UK presented to the European Commission for discussion in 2003.
"ACOS would welcome your views on the draft standards that have been developed so far."
BFREPA was one of the organisations consulted about the proposals. The proposals include draft standards for both organic pullet rearing and for the use of multi-tier housing in organic systems. The BFREPA council has drawn up detailed responses to both drafts. The draft standards and BFREPA’s response are printed on the following pages.
