Quality products start with quality producers, so we’ve taken steps to improve animal welfare across our business. We use the five freedoms to work with our suppliers to implement the most practical and commercially viable standards of animal welfare across our farming supply base.
ANIMAL WELFARE PRINCIPLES: FIVE FREEDOMS
NEW ZEALAND 100% CAGE FREE EGGS BY 2025
In August 2016, Countdown launched our Egg Producer Program to support free range and barn egg farmers. This provides farmers with an opportunity to increase their investment in free range and barn egg capacity with certainty, as we are committed to take future supply through individual partnership agreements.
This year, we announced that we are aiming to be 100% cage-free in North Island retail stores by the end of 2024, and across the rest of New Zealand by the end of 2025. We are the first national retailer to make this move, and it extends our earlier commitment to transition to free range and barn only in our own brand eggs by the end of 2022.
PERSONAL CARE AND COSMETIC ANIMAL WELFARE STANDARDS
BIG W’s own brand products are produced to high standards of animal welfare. BIG W does not use animal testing on its own brand products, including personal care and cosmetics. BIG W has also committed to not sell any products made from angora wool due to the animal welfare concerns of the process of fibre removal from rabbits.
